Wichita Falls, TX

History of Accidents in Wichita Falls

Wichita Falls, a North Texas city of around 104,000, is best known as being the host city for Sheppard Air Force Base. Its accident rates, when compared to other cities of its size, don't stand out in volume, as they fluctuated between around 2,000 and 2,500 over the past five years. However, the changes in volume from one year to the other make Wichita Falls stand out from not just the rest of Texas but US averages in general.

In fact, Wichita Falls accident rate trends are the exact opposite of those experienced by the rest of the United States between 2014 and 2018. The city's accidents fell from 2,219 in 2014, first to 2,101 in 2015 and then to 2,018 in 2016, which was to be the lowest point across the five year period. Meanwhile, US rates went up during this time to peak in 2016, largely driven by better economic conditions making it easier to afford a car which led to higher traffic rates and, in turn, more accidents.

The next two years also bucked the trend in Wichita Falls, as accident rates crept back up. First, they jumped to 2,474 in 2017 and then crept even higher to 2,575 the next year. Meanwhile, the rest of the nation's accident rates came down across these two years after their high point in 2016. Yet in a twist of irony, Wichita Falls does coincide with the rest of the country in that accident volumes were, on average, higher in 2018 than they were in 2014. The city simply took a different route to arrive at the same destination.

History of Fatalities in Wichita Falls

Fatality rates across the last five years in Wichita Falls turned out, similar to accident volume, to have little to do with national trends. Across the US, fatalities went up through 2016 and then back down slightly starting in 2017 -- something that didn't happen in Wichita Falls. At the same time, there was indeed a slight correlation between the number of accidents in the city and the number of fatalities for any given year. Though overall these fatality fluctuations remained relatively flat, there does seem to be a direct connection between one and the other.

Examples of this include how 2014's death rates in Wichita Falls began at 10 and then declined to 9 in 2015 and then 8 in 2016. This is consistent with the city's dropping accident rates during these years. However, while the accident rate shot up in 2017, fatalities remained literally stable in Wichita Falls with another 8 fatal accidents that year. This would be short-lived, though, as 2018 saw fatality rates jump to 12 for the year. And again, in the end, 2018 was more fatal than 2014 in the city, just as it was nationwide, so the destination is again the same even if the journey was circuitous.

In the end, however, the fatality rates of Wichita Falls are still slightly better than average for the US in general. In 2018, per capita traffic deaths per 100,000 people were found to be at 12.8. With the population of this city at about that level, its 12 fatalities for the year are still under that average. This makes the city, despite its idiosyncrasies, relatively typical in the end.