New Year's Eve fatal car accidents and deaths
Over the nine New Year's nights from 2015 to 2023, counted from noon on December 31 to noon on January 1, 1,342 people died in 1,237 fatal car accidents on US roads, 54% more than on the same days of the week around it.
The worst of it is midnight to 3 am: 312 deaths, against 104 on the same hours of a normal night. 43% of the night's deaths were in crashes with a driver at .08 blood alcohol or more, against 31% on a normal night.
New Year's night hour by hour, noon to noon
From midnight on, deaths climb far above a normal night and stay there until morning; the first hours of the new year are the worst. 43% of the night's deaths were in crashes with a driver at .08 blood alcohol or more, against 31% on a normal night.
12 crashes on those dates have no recorded hour and can't be placed before or after noon, so they are left out.
Source: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), 2024 Annual Report File (released April 2026, subject to revision). How we count
States where New Year's Eve is deadlier than a normal day
In New York, New Year's Eve had 110% more road deaths than the same days of the week around it, the largest rise of the 15 states with enough deaths to compare, ahead of South Carolina and Florida. In two states it had fewer deaths than a normal day, most of all Ohio (-7%).
- New York+110%
- South Carolina+108%
- Florida+97%
- Michigan+71%
- Tennessee+68%
- Virginia+54%
- Texas+49%
- Louisiana+49%
- California+42%
- Pennsylvania+35%
- North Carolina+32%
- Georgia+28%
- Illinois+15%
- Arizona-4%
- Ohio-7%
A state is compared from 20 deaths on New Year's Eve and as many on its normal days; the other 36 have too few. With counts this size, a change of 20% can be a handful of deaths.
Source: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), 2024 Annual Report File (released April 2026, subject to revision). How we count
New Year's Eve road deaths in every state, 2015 to 2023
South Carolina has the most New Year's Eve road deaths per resident: 0.95 per million residents per night, against 0.45 across the United States. Massachusetts has the fewest of the 34 states ranked. A rate is given from 10 deaths; the 17 states under that say "Not enough data".
| State | Per million residents | Deaths (total) | Fatal crashes (total) | Pedestrians (total) | Change on normal day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Carolina | 0.95 | 44 | 38 | 5 | +107.5% |
| 2 | Mississippi | 0.86 | 23 | 23 | 2 | Not enough data |
| 3 | Florida | 0.80 | 154 | 141 | 34 | +96.9% |
| 4 | Louisiana | 0.72 | 30 | 28 | 7 | +48.5% |
| 5 | Alabama | 0.69 | 31 | 27 | 2 | Not enough data |
| 6 | Arkansas | 0.63 | 17 | 17 | 4 | Not enough data |
| 6 | New Mexico | 0.63 | 12 | 10 | 1 | Not enough data |
| 8 | Kentucky | 0.60 | 24 | 21 | 3 | Not enough data |
| 9 | Texas | 0.59 | 153 | 140 | 27 | +48.8% |
| 9 | Oklahoma | 0.59 | 21 | 19 | 5 | Not enough data |
| 11 | Tennessee | 0.55 | 34 | 33 | 8 | +68.3% |
| 11 | Wisconsin | 0.55 | 29 | 24 | 4 | Not enough data |
| 13 | Connecticut | 0.53 | 17 | 17 | 3 | Not enough data |
| 14 | North Carolina | 0.52 | 49 | 46 | 8 | +32.4% |
| 15 | Georgia | 0.49 | 47 | 43 | 8 | +27.7% |
| 16 | Michigan | 0.46 | 41 | 35 | 8 | +70.8% |
| 16 | Indiana | 0.46 | 28 | 26 | 4 | Not enough data |
| 16 | Kansas | 0.46 | 12 | 12 | 1 | Not enough data |
| 19 | Missouri | 0.45 | 25 | 25 | 5 | Not enough data |
| 20 | California | 0.42 | 149 | 134 | 45 | +41.9% |
| 20 | Virginia | 0.42 | 32 | 31 | 5 | +53.8% |
| 20 | Arizona | 0.42 | 27 | 27 | 14 | -3.6% |
| 23 | Washington | 0.38 | 26 | 26 | 6 | Not enough data |
| 24 | Oregon | 0.37 | 14 | 14 | 3 | Not enough data |
| 25 | Maryland | 0.35 | 19 | 17 | 5 | Not enough data |
| 25 | Colorado | 0.35 | 18 | 18 | 4 | Not enough data |
| 25 | Iowa | 0.35 | 10 | 10 | 0 | Not enough data |
| 28 | Illinois | 0.30 | 34 | 29 | 7 | +15.3% |
| 29 | Pennsylvania | 0.28 | 32 | 29 | 9 | +34.5% |
| 30 | Ohio | 0.26 | 27 | 26 | 6 | -6.9% |
| 31 | New York | 0.24 | 43 | 35 | 15 | +109.8% |
| 32 | New Jersey | 0.23 | 19 | 19 | 9 | Not enough data |
| 33 | Minnesota | 0.20 | 10 | 9 | 1 | Not enough data |
| 34 | Massachusetts | 0.18 | 11 | 10 | 5 | Not enough data |
| Nevada | Not enough data | 9 | 8 | 3 | Not enough data | |
| Hawaii | Not enough data | 8 | 8 | 3 | Not enough data | |
| West Virginia | Not enough data | 8 | 8 | 3 | Not enough data | |
| Idaho | Not enough data | 7 | 7 | 1 | Not enough data | |
| Montana | Not enough data | 6 | 6 | 0 | Not enough data | |
| North Dakota | Not enough data | 6 | 6 | 3 | Not enough data | |
| Utah | Not enough data | 6 | 5 | 1 | Not enough data | |
| Alaska | Not enough data | 5 | 5 | 3 | Not enough data | |
| Rhode Island | Not enough data | 5 | 5 | 1 | Not enough data | |
| Maine | Not enough data | 4 | 4 | 2 | Not enough data | |
| Nebraska | Not enough data | 4 | 4 | 1 | Not enough data | |
| Delaware | Not enough data | 3 | 3 | 2 | Not enough data | |
| District of Columbia | Not enough data | 3 | 3 | 3 | Not enough data | |
| New Hampshire | Not enough data | 3 | 3 | 2 | Not enough data | |
| South Dakota | Not enough data | 2 | 2 | 1 | Not enough data | |
| Wyoming | Not enough data | 1 | 1 | 0 | Not enough data | |
| Vermont | Not enough data | 0 | 0 | 0 | Not enough data |
Source: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), 2024 Annual Report File (released April 2026, subject to revision). How we count
Download New Year's Eve road deaths in every state as CSV. Free to reuse with credit: “Fatal Crash Data, fatalcrashdata.com/new-years-eve-fatal-car-accidents/, from NHTSA FARS (2024 Annual Report File).”
Every New Year's Eve from 2015 to 2023
The deadliest was 2022 (Saturday night into 2023), with 190 road deaths; the least deadly 2017 (Sunday night into 2018), with 115.
| Year | Weekday | Deaths | Fatal crashes | Normal (average) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Sunday night into 2024 | 138 | 127 | 84 | +64.3% |
| 2022 | Saturday night into 2023 | 190 | 172 | 112 | +69.6% |
| 2021 | Friday night into 2022 | 166 | 159 | 135 | +22.8% |
| 2020 | Thursday night into 2021 | 172 | 157 | 103 | +67.8% |
| 2019 | Tuesday night into 2020 | 133 | 123 | 84 | +58.7% |
| 2018 | Monday night into 2019 | 146 | 133 | 78 | +88.4% |
| 2017 | Sunday night into 2018 | 115 | 109 | 80 | +44.7% |
| 2016 | Saturday night into 2017 | 145 | 135 | 102 | +42.4% |
| 2015 | Thursday night into 2016 | 137 | 122 | 96 | +43.5% |
Source: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), 2024 Annual Report File (released April 2026, subject to revision). How we count
Questions about New Year's Eve fatal car accidents
- How many car accidents happen on New Year's Eve?
- NHTSA's file counts only crashes in which someone died: 1,237 over the nine New Year's nights from 2015 to 2023 (noon on December 31 to noon on January 1), about 137 a year, which killed 1,342 people. Crashes with injuries or damage only are not in it; those totals come from state police and transportation departments, and no national count of them exists by day. Source: NHTSA's Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS).
- Is New Year's Eve more dangerous to drive than a normal day?
- Counted from noon on December 31 to noon on January 1, 54% more deaths than on the same days of the week in the weeks around it. December 31, midnight to midnight: +4.2%; January 1, midnight to midnight: +28.7%. The worst of it is midnight to 3 am: 312 deaths, against 104 on the same hours of a normal night. 43% of the night's deaths were in crashes with a driver at .08 blood alcohol or more, against 31% on a normal night.
- Which state has the most road deaths per resident on New Year's Eve?
- South Carolina, with 0.95 road deaths per million residents per night, against 0.45 across the United States. Massachusetts has the lowest of the 34 states with enough deaths to rank, at 0.18.
- Were more people killed on New Year's Eve in some years than others?
- The deadliest of the nine New Year's nights from 2015 to 2023 was 2022 (Saturday night into 2023), with 190 deaths; the least deadly 2017 (Sunday night into 2018), with 115.
How the New Year's Eve figures are counted
Every fatal crash NHTSA dated from noon on December 31 to noon on January 1, by the hour of the crash, in the years 2015 to 2023, each named by the year of its December (2023 runs into 2024; the night of December 31, 2024, needs NHTSA's 2025 file). The normal day it is set against is the same days of the week one, two and three weeks before and after, averaged for each year, so the weekday and the season match. Where one side of that would touch another holiday or run past the years the file holds, both sides are left out, so the average stays centred on New Year's Eve's own weeks: 4 comparison nights a year. Deaths within 30 days of the crash count on the day of the crash. Drunk driving deaths are NHTSA's alcohol-impaired measure: a driver at .08 or more, with missing tests filled in by NHTSA. Rates per million residents use Census Bureau population estimates summed over the years. The full method.