It is true that the vast majority of the car accidents in Missouri do not result in fatalities, but it is still worth breaking down the fatal crash statistics to see how often they occur and who is most likely to be hurt. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration keeps careful track of all of these statistics, and their data can shed a lot of light on how things transpire.

For example, the number of fatal accidents has actually been pretty low for the last few years for which data was kept, hovering right around 30,000. In 2009, there were 30,862 fatalities, 2010 saw 30,296, 2011 saw a low of 29,867, and 2012 ended with 30,800.

If you go back a decade or so, however, you find numbers that are closer to 40,000 than 30,000. In 2000, for instance, there were 37,526 fatalities, and 1996 saw 37,494.

Every year, drivers are more likely to pass away than passengers. In 2012, 16,769 drivers were killed, as compared to just 6,061 passengers. In 2008, 19,279 drivers passed away, but there were 7,441 deaths involving passengers. There were also a number of unknown deaths.

Of course, much of this has to do with the fact that not all cars involved in fatal accidents have passengers to begin with, so the numbers are naturally going to be higher for drivers.

Have you lost someone in a fatal car accident? If you have, you may have the right to seek compensation for your loss, seeing as how you could be dealing with many financial responsibilities that resulted from the accident.

Source: NHTSA, “National Statistics” Dec. 30, 2014