Source Identity
There is no official NHTSA file with the exact title "fars 2016 fatal crashes by state csv." The official primary source is FARS2016NationalCSV.zip. A state summary is derived from the package by reading accident.CSV, grouping crash records by STATE, counting fatal crash records, and summing FATALS for people killed.1,2,3,4
Derived 2016 State Summary
Using the on-disk 2016 FARS accident.CSV pipeline, Daily Driver Advocate derives 34,748 fatal crashes and 37,806 fatalities for 2016 across the 50 states plus D.C. The top five states by fatal crash count are shown below as a check against the aggregation.3,4
| Rank | State | Fatal crashes | Fatalities | Share of total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | 3,540 | 3,837 | 10.19% |
| 2 | Texas | 3,427 | 3,797 | 9.86% |
| 3 | Florida | 2,935 | 3,176 | 8.45% |
| 4 | Georgia | 1,424 | 1,556 | 4.10% |
| 5 | North Carolina | 1,348 | 1,450 | 3.88% |
Fields Used to Build the CSV
A clean derived CSV needs only a few crash-level fields from accident.CSV. Other FARS tables become important for person, vehicle, impairment, or circumstance analysis, but not for a basic fatal-crashes-by-state table.3,4
| Field | Role in derived table |
|---|---|
| STATE | State FIPS code used to group crash records into state rows. |
| ST_CASE | Crash case identifier. Counting unique crash records produces the fatal crash count. |
| FATALS | Number of people killed in the crash. Summing this field produces the fatality count. |
| YEAR | Confirms the crash year when building a multi-year pipeline or validating the 2016 package. |
How Daily Driver Advocate Uses It
This page is intended for people who know the output they want, a 2016 state CSV, but not the official input file. The proper citation trail starts with NHTSA's raw FARS package, then documents the aggregation method.1,3,4
Fatal Car Accidents by Year
Historical trend report that places the 2016 totals in the 1975-2024 FARS series.
Fatal Car Accidents by State
Current 2024 state comparison built with the same basic FARS state-aggregation method.
FARS2024NationalCSV.zip Source Card
The newer exact-file source card for the 2024 national FARS CSV package.
Common Research Uses
This derived table is useful when a researcher needs state-level 2016 fatal crash counts but wants to preserve a primary-source trail back to NHTSA.1,3,4
Recreate a state-by-state 2016 fatal crash count from the official FARS national CSV package.
Compare 2016 state fatal crash rankings against later FARS years.
Build a reproducible derived CSV with state, fatalCrashes, fatalities, rank, and shareOfTotal.
Avoid citing an unofficial third-party table when the original NHTSA crash records are available.
Document the distinction between fatal crash events and people killed in those crashes.
Important Limitations
This page explains how to derive a state-level CSV. It is not itself an official NHTSA download and should not be cited as a replacement for the raw FARS package.
- NHTSA provides the raw 2016 national CSV package, not a file literally named "fars 2016 fatal crashes by state csv."
- The state table is a derived summary. It should cite the official FARS package and document the aggregation method.
- FARS covers fatal traffic crashes only, not injury-only crashes or property-damage-only crashes.
- The 2016 package uses different filename casing than recent packages, such as accident.CSV instead of accident.csv.
Suggested Citation
For the raw data, cite NHTSA's 2016 national CSV package. If citing the state table, include the derivation method: group accident.CSV by STATE, count fatal crash records, and sum FATALS.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. FARS2016NationalCSV.zip. Fatality Analysis Reporting System, 2016 national CSV package. https://static.nhtsa.gov/nhtsa/downloads/FARS/2016/National/FARS2016NationalCSV.zip
Primary Source Directory
- Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) overviewIssuing authority: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
- FARS 2016 file download directoryIssuing authority: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
- FARS2016NationalCSV.zip official downloadIssuing authority: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
- Links for FARS manualsIssuing authority: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration