Waco, TX

History of Accidents in Waco

The city of Waco, with its population of more than 134,000, sits about halfay between Dallas and Austin right on Interstate 35. As a result, the city receives its fair share of both local and long-haul traffic -- and that means drivers in or near Waco risk being involved in car accidents. Over the past five years, however, the average number of accidents occurring in Waco has fluctuated between 3,450 at the lowest and 3,977 at the highest, ranking it favorably alongside other Texas cities with comparable population counts.

Accident trends in Waco from 2014 through 2018 bear a close resemblance to those of Texas overall and the United States in general. Like national data reveals, accident rates began low, spiked to a high in 2016, and then began to decline across the country, and Waco’s accident rates loosely follow this pattern. Waco had the fewest accidents in 2014, began to increase in 2015 to 3,636 and peaked in 2016 before dropping in 2017 to just 3,887. Yet while 2018’s nationwide accident rates decreased, Waco’s accidents rose back up slightly to 3,914 -- still above the 2016 high-water mark but raising questions as to whether Waco will continue to diverge from national averages in the future.

The reason for the increase in driving accidents across the country have been traced to economic conditions in 2015 beginning to improve for many Americans. With unemployment down and gas prices dropping, it was suddenly much more affordable to put a vehicle on the road. Unfortunately, there were so many more cars on the road that the chances of getting into an accident went up as well. While issues like distracted driving and drunk driving have always contributed to accidents in Texas and beyond, It’s not as if Americans suddenly became worse drivers overnight -- there was just more traffic, and that led to more opportunities to get into crashes

History of Fatalities in Waco

Fatality rates in Waco over the last five years coincide with national trends overall while still diverging enough to show that the city’s road conditions are unique to it. Like national averages, which saw fatality rates increase through 2016, ease off slightly through 2017, and end up lower than peak but still relatively high in 2018, Waco’s fatality rates were higher in 2018 than they were in 2014. However, the path these fatality rates took to reach that level diverged, as 2014, which experienced 11 fatal crashes, was not the least deadly year in the city. Instead, 2015 had the fewest deaths at 9, even as the rest of the country saw higher death rates that year. Likewise, Waco’s deadliest year was 2017 with 20 fatal accidents, at a time when the rest of the country’s death rates were already in decline.