Missouri recorded 1,622 fatal front-end passenger car collisions, ranking #10th nationally

Missouri recorded 1,622 fatal front-end passenger car collisions between 2019 and 2023, an average of 324 deaths every year, or roughly one death every 1.13 days.

With a rate of 5.16 fatal front-end crashes per 100,000 residents per year, Missouri ranks #10 among all 50 states — and stands as the only non-Southern state in the entire top ten, making its Critical Risk classification a significant regional outlier.

Missouri’s rate of 5.16 is 39% above the national average and 115% higher than that of neighboring Iowa (#40, 2.40) — two Midwestern states separated by a single state line but by a vast gulf in road safety outcomes.

(STL.News) Front-end collisions are among the most violent and lethal crash configurations a driver can experience, concentrating the full force of impact at the vehicle’s most exposed point. For Missouri residents, this risk is not just elevated; it is the tenth highest in the country — and uniquely so, as Missouri is the only state in the top ten that is not part of the traditional American South.

An analysis by Wilk Law Personal Injury & Car Accident Lawyers examined data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), accessed via NHTSA’s Crash Data Acquisition Network (CDAN) query tool (https://cdan.dot.gov/query). The dataset covers all 50 U.S. states across a five-year window from 2019 to 2023, and average annual fatal front-end collisions involving passenger cars rank states per 100,000 residents, using 2025 population estimates to normalize for state size.

Missouri Ranks #10 in the Nation: 5.16 Fatal Front-End Crashes Per 100,000 Residents Per Year

Nine of the ten most dangerous states are in the South, and Missouri is the lone exception. Despite sitting outside the traditional Southern bloc, Missouri’s rate of 5.16 per 100,000 is nearly identical to ninth-ranked North Carolina (5.18) — a gap of just 0.02 points — and clears the Critical Risk threshold of 5.00 by a meaningful margin. 

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Missouri Is a Non-Southern State Surrounded by a Mixed Range of Risk Levels

Missouri borders eight states — more than almost any other in the country — and its neighbors span a wide range of risk levels. To the south and southeast, Tennessee (#4, 5.98), Kentucky (#6, 5.65), and Arkansas (#7, 5.61) all sit in the Critical Risk tier alongside Missouri. But to the north, west, and northwest, Iowa (#40, 2.40), Nebraska (#28, 3.08), Kansas (#19, 3.59), and Illinois (#24, 3.33) are all well below Missouri’s rate — some by a factor of more than two. 

Looking at the study, Tyler Wilk, Founding Attorney at Wilk Law Personal Injury & Accident Lawyers, commented:

“These numbers reflect a serious public safety problem concentrated in a specific region of the country. The Southern states dominating this list face approximately 4,000 front-end fatalities a year combined, and that pattern deserves far more attention from policymakers and road safety advocates than it currently receives. Missouri, the only non-Southern state in this top ten, is a state where the data is telling us something urgent about road conditions, driver behavior, and systemic infrastructure gaps, and those findings should translate directly into targeted interventions.”

How Missouri Compares to the National Average and the Nation’s Safest States

The human cost of Missouri’s elevated rate is substantial. If the state could reduce its rate to the national average of 3.70 per 100,000, about 92 lives per year would be spared, totaling over 460 over the five-year study period. If Missouri’s rate could be brought down to Hawaii’s level of 1.35 per 100,000, approximately 240 lives per year would be saved.

Where Missouri Sits in the National Risk Framework

Only 17 of 50 states fall in the Critical or High Risk tiers above the national average of 3.70 per 100,000. Missouri sits within the Critical Risk tier at #10 nationally — the only non-Southern state to do so. The concentration of that tier in the South, with 10 of its 11 states being Southern, points to a regional infrastructure and policy challenge, but Missouri’s presence in this group signals that the problem is not exclusively a Southern one.

Methodology

This analysis examined fatal motor vehicle crashes involving passenger cars with a front-end point of impact across all 50 U.S. states. The Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), maintained by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), provided the data, which researchers accessed via the Crash Data Acquisition Network (CDAN) query tool at https://cdan.dot.gov/query. This analysis spans five years, from 2019 through 2023, and the totals provided are cumulative fatality counts for this timeframe. The analysis ranks states by average annual fatal front-end collisions per 100,000 residents and accounts for differences in state size by normalizing population with 2025 state population estimates. They include only crashes involving passenger cars.

Data Sources

• • NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS): https://cdan.dot.gov/query

• Research Dataset: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/129USFqHgV2L823c2er7-81_Esh_cXbym6caEvya4sY8/edit?gid=0#gid=0

• Research by: https://wilklawfirm.com/

About Wilk Law Personal Injury and Accident Lawyers

The study was conducted by Wilk Law Personal Injury & Accident Lawyers, a Pennsylvania-based firm that represents victims of negligence in cases involving vehicle collisions, medical malpractice, nursing home abuse, premises liability, and wrongful death.

Learn more at wilklawfirm.com.