The Arizona Department of Transportation has released data showing the total number of crashes in the state last year, along with trends we’re seeing on the roads.
According to the data, there were more than 122,000 crashes in Arizona in 2023. Of those, nearly 1,200 were deadly and more than 37,000 resulted in injury.
Victims most often lost their lives in crashes involving lane departures or high speed, and most commonly occurred in urban areas and on local roads rather than highway systems.
![Crashes](https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/aa3e33a/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1444x752+0+0/resize/1280x667!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fewscripps-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fcb%2F7f%2Fedb434124cff967103f7dc6a03bb%2Fscreenshot-2024-07-15-at-9-15-14-am.png)
Traffic fatalities have been rising since the mid-2000s, aside from a few years with lower numbers. Data from 2023 shows just slightly fewer deaths than in 2022, but higher than in 2020 and 2021.
Overall, the total number of crashes rose about 1.57% from 2022.
People on motorcycles were involved in more crashes, resulting in both injury and death, in 2023 than the year before.
The report also highlighted some staggering observations about the rate of crashes in Arizona:
- Approximately 3.58 persons were killed each day.
- One person was killed every 6 hours and 42 minutes.
- There were 148 persons injured every day.
- One person was injured every 9 minutes and 42 seconds.
- Alcohol-related crashes accounted for 4.71% of all crashes and 25.73% of all fatal crashes.
Read more in the 2023 Arizona Motor Vehicle Crash Facts report here.