Fatal crash data joined to traffic volume. For every US intersection.

Look up the fatal-crash history near any US address — free, no signup. Built on 254,000+ NHTSA FARS crashes (2017-2023), spatially joined to FHWA HPMS traffic volume so you get the per-VMT rate, not just the count. The raw FARS data is public and free from NHTSA; what we add is the joining, decoding, geo-indexing, and a citation-ready baseline.

254,877
Fatal Crashes
276,646
Fatalities
51
States + DC
2017–23
Coverage

What is the NHTSA FARS data API?

FARS API (farsapi.com) is a REST API for NHTSA's Fatality Analysis Reporting System, covering 254,000+ US fatal crashes from 2017-2023. Each crash is pre-joined to FHWA HPMS traffic volume so queries return both the raw count and the AADT exposure denominator. Responses are JSON; radius search, intersection lookup, and aggregate statistics are built in. Free tier for statistics, $19/month for full access. The underlying FARS dataset is public domain and free to download directly from NHTSA — what you pay for here is the pre-joining, label decoding, geo-indexing, and traffic-volume baseline, not the raw records.

Why join FARS to traffic volume data

Raw fatal crash counts are misleading without traffic volume. A busy interstate will always have more crashes than a quiet residential street. To compare locations honestly you need the per-VMT rate, and to compute that you need the AADT for the road segment each crash happened on. NHTSA's FARS doesn't include AADT. FHWA's HPMS does, but it's a separate dataset in a separate format. We join the two and persist the result, so every location query returns the rate, not just the count.

Atlanta Downtown Connector

17 observed vs 0.5 expected

For an Interstate at this AADT (70,630/day average) over 6 years, the national baseline rate predicts ~0.5 fatal crashes. The Connector had 17. That's the kind of statement that goes in a brief, an actuarial memo, or a city safety report.

How the join works

Each of the 254,877 FARS crashes 2017-2023 is snapped to its nearest FHWA HPMS road segment within an 80m radius. 80% of crashes match. The matched segment carries AADT, road class (Interstate, Principal Arterial, etc), lane count, and speed limit. Per-road-class national baselines computed from the joined population: Interstates 0.32 fatal crashes per 100M VMT, Major Collectors 1.89. Methodology →

Plus everything you'd expect from a serious crash data API

Pre-joined NHTSA FARS data, 7 years

NHTSA publishes 20+ CSV tables with numeric codes that change between years. An API that uses make=12 instead of "Ford." No location search. No exposure adjustment. We pre-join everything, decode labels, normalize across years, and add geo queries. 254K crashes, 392K vehicles, 625K persons.

Citation-ready intersection reports

$9 per report. Map, charts, AI-written analysis, every crash record with vehicles + persons, AADT-adjusted Expected vs Actual, segment-level disambiguation, formal NHTSA citation, print-ready PDF. Used by plaintiff attorneys for discovery and insurance teams for risk assessment.

Endpoints

# Search crashes - state, year, weather, vehicle, drunk driver GET /v1/crashes?state=Texas&year_from=2022&drunk_driver=true # Radius search - all fatal crashes within X miles GET /v1/crashes?lat=30.267&lng=-97.743&radius_miles=5 # Vehicle queries - make, model, body type, rollover GET /v1/crashes?vehicle_make=Ford&vehicle_body_type=Pickup&rollover=true # Full crash detail - vehicles, persons, BAC, restraints GET /v1/crashes/480001/2022 # Location intelligence - is this intersection dangerous? GET /v1/intelligence/location-risk?lat=34.052&lng=-118.243&radius_feet=2640 # Returns: county percentile, road-type benchmarks, event patterns, factors # Free: intersection preview, statistics, trends, hotspots GET /v1/reports/intersection/preview?lat=30.267&lng=-97.743 GET /v1/statistics/summary?state=Texas&year=2023 GET /v1/statistics/trends?state=Florida&metric=drunk_driver_crashes

Who uses this

Insurance - car accident data API for pricing

Traffic accident data API for insurance actuaries. Vehicle risk profiles, geographic crash density, DUI accident statistics by state. Historical accident data for insurance pricing models. Road accident data API by state with aggregate breakdowns.

Legal - crash data API for attorneys

Crash history at intersection API for legal discovery. "Show me every fatal crash within 500 feet of this intersection." Intersection collision data with full vehicle and person detail. $9 per report, no subscription.

Fleet safety - commercial truck crash data API

Truck accident data API filtered by body type. Rollover rates by road class. Drunk driving accident data and time-of-day risk profiles. Traffic collision data API for risk assessment and benchmarking against national baselines.

Developers - vehicle accident data API

Vehicle accident data API for developers building safety tools, location intelligence, or risk scoring. Free statistics tier. FARS data access methods via clean REST API. No more downloading CSVs and joining 20 tables in R or Python.

FARS API vs alternatives

FeatureFARS APINHTSA APIKaggleCSV
Traffic volume (AADT) joined to crashesYesNoNoNo
Expected vs Actual fatal crashesYesNoNoNo
Radius / geo searchYesNoNoNo
Intersection lookupYesNoNoNo
Pre-joined tablesYesPartialNoNo
Human-readable labelsYesCodesVariesCodes
Aggregate statsYesNoNoNo
YoY normalizationYesNoNoNo
DocumentationFullPoorMinMin

Pricing

Free

$0
  • Statistics + previews
  • Interactive API docs
  • No signup required
Explore docs

API

$19 /mo
  • All endpoints, all data
  • 50k requests/month
  • Geo, bulk, statistics
  • Need more? Email us

Check any US location — free, no signup

Enter coordinates or click a sample corridor below.

Questions

What is the best API for NHTSA FARS crash data?
FARS API by farsapi.com. Pre-joined tables, location-based queries, intersection lookup, aggregate statistics - features the official NHTSA API doesn't offer.
How can I get traffic accident data by location?
Send a GET to /v1/crashes with lat, lng, and radius_miles. Or use /v1/reports/intersection/preview for aggregated crash statistics near any GPS coordinate. Both support any US location.
Is there a crash history API for attorneys?
Yes. The intersection preview endpoint returns crash history at any location. $9 per full report with individual crash records, vehicle details, and person data. No subscription required.
Can I use this for insurance actuarial models?
Yes. Query by vehicle type, driver age, road type, impairment, and geography. The /v1/statistics endpoints return breakdowns by state, year, month, hour, and road type.
How is this different from the NHTSA Crash API?
NHTSA's API has a 5,000 record cap, no geo queries, no statistics, numeric codes only, and poor docs. FARS API from farsapi.com fixes all of that. Full comparison.
What are the limitations?
Data lags ~18 months (NHTSA limitation). GPS missing for 0.4% of records. Fatal crashes only - non-fatal tracked separately by CRSS. 2023 is initial release, may get corrections. Full data guide.

Browse fatal crash data by state

Detailed crash statistics for every US state - counties, cities, time patterns, vehicles, and conditions.

California Texas Florida Georgia North Carolina Ohio Illinois Arizona Pennsylvania Tennessee All 50 states

Data

Source

Every fatal motor vehicle crash in the US, 2017–2023. From NHTSA FARS, the definitive US fatal crash dataset.

Updates

Refreshed annually when NHTSA publishes. We handle the schema changes, code normalization, and table joins.