Super Bowl Sunday fatal car accidents and deaths
Over the ten Super Bowl Sundays from 2015 to 2024, counted from the Sunday of the game, midnight to midnight, 1,022 people died in 924 fatal car accidents on US roads, 3% more than on the same days of the week around it.
The day as a whole is close to a normal Sunday. Game night is not: from 6 pm to 6 am, 499 deaths against 429 on the same hours of a normal Sunday, 16% more, and 48% of them in crashes with a driver at .08 blood alcohol or more, against 40%.
Super Bowl Sunday hour by hour, noon to noon
From noon to 9 pm, through the hours before and during the game, Sunday had 411 deaths against 409 on a normal Sunday, close to normal. The rise comes late: 10 pm to 1 am had 145 deaths against 94 on the same hours of a normal Sunday night.
9 crashes on those dates have no recorded hour and are left off the chart.
| Hours | Deaths (total) | Fatal crashes (total) | Change on normal night |
|---|---|---|---|
| Game night (6 pm to 6 am) | 499 | 460 | +16.2% |
Source: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), 2024 Annual Report File (released April 2026, subject to revision). How we count
States where Super Bowl Sunday is deadlier than a normal day
In North Carolina, Super Bowl Sunday had 51% more road deaths than the same days of the week around it, the largest rise of the 14 states with enough deaths to compare, ahead of Tennessee and South Carolina. In three states it had fewer deaths than a normal day, most of all Arizona (-36%).
- North Carolina+51%
- Tennessee+50%
- South Carolina+36%
- Missouri+34%
- Alabama+29%
- Louisiana+21%
- Texas+12%
- Florida+11%
- California+6%
- Michigan+6%
- Illinois+2%
- Georgia-8%
- Ohio-11%
- Arizona-36%
A state is compared from 20 deaths on Super Bowl Sunday and as many on its normal days; the other 37 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
Super Bowl Sunday road deaths in every state, 2015 to 2024
Mississippi has the most Super Bowl Sunday road deaths per resident: 0.64 per million residents per Super Bowl Sunday, against 0.31 across the United States. New York has the fewest of the 29 states ranked. A rate is given from 10 deaths; the 22 states under that say "Not enough data".
| State | Per million residents | Deaths (total) | Fatal crashes (total) | Pedestrians (total) | Change on normal day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mississippi | 0.64 | 19 | 14 | 1 | Not enough data |
| 2 | Alabama | 0.62 | 31 | 29 | 4 | +29.2% |
| 3 | Tennessee | 0.58 | 40 | 32 | 2 | +49.8% |
| 3 | South Carolina | 0.58 | 30 | 24 | 3 | +36.4% |
| 3 | Louisiana | 0.58 | 27 | 23 | 6 | +21.1% |
| 6 | Florida | 0.52 | 112 | 99 | 27 | +11.1% |
| 7 | Arkansas | 0.50 | 15 | 13 | 1 | Not enough data |
| 8 | North Carolina | 0.49 | 51 | 47 | 10 | +50.9% |
| 9 | Texas | 0.46 | 135 | 122 | 23 | +12.2% |
| 10 | Kentucky | 0.45 | 20 | 19 | 2 | Not enough data |
| 10 | Oklahoma | 0.45 | 18 | 17 | 1 | Not enough data |
| 12 | Missouri | 0.44 | 27 | 25 | 2 | +33.7% |
| 13 | Indiana | 0.41 | 28 | 24 | 4 | Not enough data |
| 14 | Georgia | 0.37 | 40 | 36 | 8 | -8.5% |
| 15 | Kansas | 0.34 | 10 | 10 | 1 | Not enough data |
| 16 | California | 0.31 | 120 | 112 | 21 | +6.4% |
| 17 | Arizona | 0.29 | 21 | 20 | 4 | -35.8% |
| 18 | Colorado | 0.28 | 16 | 16 | 1 | Not enough data |
| 19 | Oregon | 0.26 | 11 | 9 | 0 | Not enough data |
| 20 | Illinois | 0.22 | 28 | 28 | 9 | +1.8% |
| 20 | Michigan | 0.22 | 22 | 20 | 3 | +6.3% |
| 20 | Virginia | 0.22 | 19 | 19 | 6 | Not enough data |
| 20 | Wisconsin | 0.22 | 13 | 12 | 2 | Not enough data |
| 24 | Washington | 0.21 | 16 | 15 | 3 | Not enough data |
| 25 | Ohio | 0.20 | 23 | 21 | 3 | -10.9% |
| 26 | Maryland | 0.16 | 10 | 9 | 2 | Not enough data |
| 27 | New Jersey | 0.14 | 13 | 12 | 3 | Not enough data |
| 28 | Pennsylvania | 0.12 | 15 | 14 | 1 | Not enough data |
| 29 | New York | 0.08 | 15 | 15 | 8 | Not enough data |
| Iowa | Not enough data | 8 | 4 | 0 | Not enough data | |
| Minnesota | Not enough data | 8 | 6 | 0 | Not enough data | |
| New Mexico | Not enough data | 8 | 8 | 3 | Not enough data | |
| Nevada | Not enough data | 7 | 6 | 1 | Not enough data | |
| Massachusetts | Not enough data | 6 | 6 | 1 | Not enough data | |
| Utah | Not enough data | 6 | 5 | 2 | Not enough data | |
| Delaware | Not enough data | 5 | 5 | 0 | Not enough data | |
| Idaho | Not enough data | 4 | 4 | 0 | Not enough data | |
| Montana | Not enough data | 4 | 4 | 0 | Not enough data | |
| Hawaii | Not enough data | 3 | 3 | 1 | Not enough data | |
| Maine | Not enough data | 3 | 3 | 0 | Not enough data | |
| Nebraska | Not enough data | 3 | 3 | 1 | Not enough data | |
| Rhode Island | Not enough data | 3 | 2 | 0 | Not enough data | |
| Connecticut | Not enough data | 2 | 2 | 1 | Not enough data | |
| South Dakota | Not enough data | 2 | 2 | 0 | Not enough data | |
| West Virginia | Not enough data | 2 | 2 | 1 | Not enough data | |
| Alaska | Not enough data | 1 | 1 | 0 | Not enough data | |
| District of Columbia | Not enough data | 1 | 1 | 1 | Not enough data | |
| Wyoming | Not enough data | 1 | 1 | 1 | Not enough data | |
| New Hampshire | Not enough data | 0 | 0 | 0 | Not enough data | |
| North Dakota | Not enough data | 0 | 0 | 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 Super Bowl Sunday road deaths in every state as CSV. Free to reuse with credit: “Fatal Crash Data, fatalcrashdata.com/super-bowl-sunday-fatal-car-accidents/, from NHTSA FARS (2024 Annual Report File).”
Every Super Bowl Sunday from 2015 to 2024
The deadliest was 2021 (February 7), with 127 road deaths; the least deadly 2015 (February 1), with 87.
| Year | Date | Deaths | Fatal crashes | Normal (average) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | February 11 | 95 | 87 | 103 | -7.3% |
| 2023 | February 12 | 91 | 83 | 107 | -15.1% |
| 2022 | February 13 | 114 | 107 | 118 | -3.2% |
| 2021 | February 7 | 127 | 115 | 98 | +30.3% |
| 2020 | February 2 | 106 | 97 | 97 | +9.5% |
| 2019 | February 3 | 112 | 101 | 86 | +30.5% |
| 2018 | February 4 | 97 | 84 | 97 | +0.2% |
| 2017 | February 5 | 102 | 90 | 96 | +6.6% |
| 2016 | February 7 | 91 | 86 | 96 | -5.0% |
| 2015 | February 1 | 87 | 74 | 93 | -6.8% |
Source: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), 2024 Annual Report File (released April 2026, subject to revision). How we count
Questions about Super Bowl Sunday fatal car accidents
- How many car accidents happen on Super Bowl Sunday?
- NHTSA's file counts only crashes in which someone died: 924 over the ten Super Bowl Sundays from 2015 to 2024 (the Sunday of the game, midnight to midnight), about 92 a year, which killed 1,022 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 Super Bowl Sunday more dangerous to drive than a normal day?
- Counted from the Sunday of the game, midnight to midnight, 3% more deaths than on the same days of the week in the weeks around it. The day as a whole is close to a normal Sunday. Game night is not: from 6 pm to 6 am, 499 deaths against 429 on the same hours of a normal Sunday, 16% more, and 48% of them in crashes with a driver at .08 blood alcohol or more, against 40%.
- Is drunk driving worse on Super Bowl Sunday?
- 429 people died in crashes with a driver at .08 blood alcohol or more over the ten Super Bowl Sundays from 2015 to 2024, against 391 on the same days of the week around it, 10% more. The rise is on game night: 238 such deaths from 6 pm to 6 am, against 170 on a normal Sunday night. The count is NHTSA's alcohol-impaired measure, with missing tests filled in by NHTSA.
- Which state has the most road deaths per resident on Super Bowl Sunday?
- Mississippi, with 0.64 road deaths per million residents per holiday, against 0.31 across the United States. New York has the lowest of the 29 states with enough deaths to rank, at 0.08.
- Were more people killed on Super Bowl Sunday in some years than others?
- The deadliest of the ten Super Bowl Sundays from 2015 to 2024 was 2021 (February 7), with 127 deaths; the least deadly 2015 (February 1), with 87.
How the Super Bowl Sunday figures are counted
Every fatal crash NHTSA dated from the Sunday of the game, midnight to midnight, in the years 2015 to 2024. 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 Super Bowl Sunday's own weeks: 6 comparison blocks 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.