Pasadena, TX

History of Accidents in Pasadena

Pasadena, located not far from Houston, underwent a large jump in annual accident volume figures from 2014 through 2018. While such a large increase should be cause for concern when viewed without any context, though, a quick glance reveals that Pasadena’s accident trends are largely in line with the rest of the country for the past five years.

2014 represents a low point in accident volume in Pasadena, as there were only 4,010 accidents in the city. The next year saw this volume increase to 4,378, and they continued to rise through 2016, where annual accidents reached their highest at 4,385 for the year. 2017 and 2018 were comparatively less accident-prone years when compared to 2016, as the next year saw the accident rate drop to 4,275. Meanwhile, 2018’s accident figures crept up slightly to 4,287, but this still means there were nearly 100 fewer accidents that year than at the peak of 2016.

Annual accident figures for the United States largely mirror Pasadena’s growth rates, as these rose to a high point in 2016 and then began to decline through the next two years. Why was this a national trend? The driving factor, according to many experts, was economic. 2015 saw a marked decrease in unemployment rates nationwide, and combining that with gas prices slipping downwards as well, it’s thought that this made driving much more affordable for many Americans. The unfortunate side effect of this, however, is that there were more people on the roads -- and that meant higher accident volumes as a result.

History of Fatalities in Pasadena

Fatal crash statistics for Pasadena over the last five years tell a very similar story as well. Nationally, fatalities went up in tandem with accident volumes, peaking in 2016 and slowly decreasing for the next two years in a row, and that is similar to what happened in Pasadena. In fact, the only difference between national fatality ratios and fatalities in Pasadena is that 2018 was the least deadly year in the city with just 6 fatal accidents. Nationally, it’s true that 2018 fatalities were lower overall, but there were more fatalities in 2018 than there were in 2014; yet in Pasadena the fatal accident count in 2014 was two higher than in 2018. In other words, Pasadena may have experienced a sudden spike in fatalities through 2016 like the rest of the country, it has recovered better and improved more than the national average.