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El Paso, TX

El Paso's accident history over the past five years indicates that something changed in 2015, and not necessarily for the better. Yet at the same time, whatever worsened in the city between 2014 and 2015 seems to not have had any influence in later years; while there was a large initial increase in annual accidents from 2014 to 2015, the next several years saw accident rates remain relatively stable.

Breaking down the numbers, we can see that 2014's accident figures reveal that there were only 3,090 accidents in El Paso over the course of the year. This works out to be a little over eight accidents a day. In a city with around 676,000 people, that's not unreasonable at all. Yet these relatively benign figures were not to last, as there were an additional 877 accidents in 2015, raising its annual total to 3,967. There was modest growth the next year with 4,165 accidents, but unlike 2016, the following year saw a small reduction to 4,136. Compared to 2017, there were even fewer accidents in 2018, which came in at 4,104. That's just a bit over 11 accidents a day -- not awful, but still worse than 2014 by a margin that's significant enough to take notice.

Fatality rates in El Paso, meanwhile, have very little in common with the city's accident history over the last five years. There were 11 fatalities in 2014, but the following year this figure went down by one. With only 10 accidents in 2015, the fact that the number of accidents in the city increased by 877 for the year shows that while there might have been more accidents that occurred that year, it's obvious that the accidents that did occur were not more life-threatening. El Paso's roads were simply safer in 2015 than they were in 2014, at least when viewed through the lens of how fatal they were.

Yet fatalities in 2016 further complicated this issue. When death rates rose to 15 for the year even as accident rates leveled off, it began to look like a higher number of accidents leads to more fatalities after all. But 2017 saw this trend continue to be disrupted when fatalities dropped to 8 for the year, again inconsistent with overall accident rates -- there were only 29 fewer accidents in 2017, and if fatalities were as closely linked with accident rates as they should be, 2017's fatalities should have been nearly identical to 2016 rates. 2018, meanwhile, saw the most fatalities for the year at 16, which is double the number of deaths in 2017 even though the number of accidents occurred over the course of those 12 months reduced slightly.

It stands to reason that the more accidents a city has, the more likely it is that there will be a higher number of fatalities. Yet if there's one thing that can be made completely clear by the last five years in El Paso, it's that there's no  connection between the number of accidents that have occurred in the city and how dangerous those accidents are. Instead, it stands to reason that there are other factors in play that may have had an influence on El Paso's fatality rate.

Fatality rates in El Paso, meanwhile, have very little in common with the city's accident history over the last five years. There were 11 fatalities in 2014, but the following year this figure went down by one. With only 10 accidents in 2015, the fact that the number of accidents in the city increased by 877 for the year shows that while there might have been more accidents that occurred that year, it's obvious that the accidents that did occur were not more life-threatening. El Paso's roads were simply safer in 2015 than they were in 2014, at least when viewed through the lens of how fatal they were.

Yet fatalities in 2016 further complicated this issue. When death rates rose to 15 for the year even as accident rates leveled off, it began to look like a higher number of accidents leads to more fatalities after all. But 2017 saw this trend continue to be disrupted when fatalities dropped to 8 for the year, again inconsistent with overall accident rates -- there were only 29 fewer accidents in 2017, and if fatalities were as closely linked with accident rates as they should be, 2017's fatalities should have been nearly identical to 2016 rates. 2018, meanwhile, saw the most fatalities for the year at 16, which is double the number of deaths in 2017 even though the number of accidents occurred over the course of those 12 months reduced slightly.

It stands to reason that the more accidents a city has, the more likely it is that there will be a higher number of fatalities. Yet if there's one thing that can be made completely clear by the last five years in El Paso, it's that there's no  connection between the number of accidents that have occurred in the city and how dangerous those accidents are. Instead, it stands to reason that there are other factors in play that may have had an influence on El Paso's fatality rate.