Corpus Christi, TX

History of Accidents in Corpus Christi

Corpus Christi's five-year accident rate figures are quite dramatic. Beginning in 2014, there were only 1,408 accidents occurring per year. 2015 saw this figure increasing relatively modestly to just 1,745, but then the next three years saw a marked rise in accident rates, starting with 2016's total annual accident figure of 2801 -- more than 1,000 more accidents than the previous year. 2017's accident figures were even higher at 2,917, while 2018's figures fell only slightly to a still quite high 2,714.

This jump between 2014 and 2018 might seem to be indicating that you should never, ever drive into Corpus Christi, but the truth reveals that it's not just a problem that's unique to this Gulf Coast city. In fact, there was a nationwide jump in car accident volume between 2014 and 2015 due to brightening economic conditions. Cheaper car care costs and more affordable gas prices led to an increasing number of Americans on the roads, and the sheer jump in volume led to higher accident figures. Data from the NHTSA comparing Texas and the US during this time shows this trend continued through 2016, with both accident volumes in the entire state, and in all 50 states, increasing both years.

History of Fatalities in Corpus Christi

Fatality rates in Corpus Christi, however, are a different matter altogether. While there are some initial correlations between accident rate and fatality, such as the lowest years for both being 2014 with just five fatalities in the city, subsequent years experienced wildly fluctuating death rates. From 2015 to 2018, fatality rates were at least twice that of 2014, with annual deaths ranging from 12, 11, 14, and 10 consecutively. However, 2015, which was the second-deadliest year by way of fatalities, was one of the years that Corpus Christi had its fewest accidents.

This isn't too far off from annual fatality rates across the country during this time, however. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the Highway Loss Data Institute's figures show that fatalities increased nationwide for two years in a row before slowly easing off in 2017. Yet even in the face of these startlingly high statistics, the IIHS and HLDI points out that deaths per 100,000 people on the nation's roads is half of what it was decades ago, and 2017's per capita death rate is actually 3 percent lower than it was in 2016.

In Corpus Christi, however, there are some issues that need to be resolved when it comes to what contributes to accidents in the city. Alcohol-related crashes continue to be high, with a bleak point in 2016 when there were 414 crashes in the city in which alcohol played a part, six of which were fatal. 2017 figures in Corpus Christi were reduced from that peak, and hopes are high that continued efforts to bring alcohol-related crashes down even further in the future.