NHTSA FARS Fatal Crashes API

What you can build

Qualifying fatal traffic crash records, fatalities, source vehicle/person counts, dates, roads and published coordinates. Original NHTSA CSV ZIP publications are retained with checksums and publisher revision headers. Recent editions and a rotating historical shard are checked daily; discovery of new annual editions requires review. Annual and final publications differ. No invented locations for early/unlocated crashes. Legacy DMS conversion and Puerto Rico FARS state 43/Census 72 mapping are explicit. Crashes are not people, insurance claims, exposure-adjusted rates or fault determinations. Use this dataset as a sourced input to an application, analytical model or retrieval tool. Retain its native dimensions when joining it with your own records.

Query NHTSA FARS Fatal Crashes

The example below is a real bounded request against the available release. Replace the environment variable with your server-side API credential. Review endpoint parameters and response schemas before changing selectors.

curl --fail --get "https://api.geoamcan.com/v1/transportation/fatal-crashes?state=48&year_start=2024&year_end=2024&limit=1" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GEOAMCAN_API_KEY"

Saved response excerpt

{
  "requested_area": {
    "state": "48",
    "county": null,
    "case_id": null,
    "area": "all",
    "year_start": 2024,
    "year_end": 2024,
    "date_from": null,
    "date_to": null,
    "fatalities_min": null,
    "q": null,
    "lat": null,
    "lon": null
  },
  "data": [
    {
      "year": 2024,
      "area": "national",
      "case_id": "480001",
      "state_fips": "48",
      "native_state_code": "48",
      "county_code": "453",
      "county_fips": "48453",
      "state_name": "Texas",
      "county_name": "TRAVIS (453)",
      "crash_date": "2024-01-01",
      "crash_local": "2024-01-01T05:58:00",
      "fatalities": 1
    }
  ],
  "availability": {
    "status": "available",
    "coverage": [
      {
        "area": "national",
        "year": 1975,
        "crashes": 39161,
        "edition": "Published historical CSV edition; publisher revision headers retained",
        "located": 0,
        "encoding": "utf-8-sig",
        "fatalities": 44525,
        "unknown_dates": 3,
        "unknown_times": 261,
        "invalid_geometries": 0
      }
    ],
    "source_editions": [
      {
        "area": "national",
        "year": 2024,
        "edition": "2024 first annual release (2026-04-01)",
        "source_index": {
          "etag": "\"8fef3df7b8ca07909288ae7f93d3fb86-4\"",
          "last-modified": "Wed, 01 Apr 2026 19:46:56 GMT",
          "content-length": "32672161"
        }
      }
    ],
    "source_revision_check_scope": "Original captured publisher headers retained for every archive; recent editions and a rotating historic shard checked online before activation. Full record fields/points are replayed against every retained archive.",
    "ordering": "reporting year descending, area and native case ID ascending; not distance-ranked"
  },
  "snapshot": {
    "nhtsa-fars": {
      "release_id": 120,
      "release": "1975–2024 original NHTSA FARS CSV archive editions; captured 2026-11-05",
      "fingerprint": "d5078267e4a6b2020cffc9ae0788b6b1"
    }
  },
  "returned_count": 1,
  "complete": false,
  "next_offset": 1,
  "limitations": [
    "NHTSA FARS is a census of qualifying fatal motor-vehicle traffic crashes, not all crashes, nonfatal injuries, insurance claims, traffic exposure or a modeled risk rate. A qualifying crash involves a trafficway customarily open to the public and a death within 30 days. One row is one crash; fatalities, vehicles and persons are separate units. Data definitions/codes change by year and annual releases can be revised; source editions and distribution channels remain explicit. Historic records before 1999 generally have no source coordinates; missing/sentinel/invalid locations stay unlocated, with no fabricated geocoding or road snapping. Legacy degree/minute/second coordinates are converted only when their source format is valid and the method is labelled. Published points do not establish survey/parcel accuracy or a roadway segment match. Native FARS state 43 denotes Puerto Rico and is separately mapped to Census state 72; native case IDs remain unchanged. County codes are native year-specific GSA codes, not a current-boundary spatial assignment; unmapped historic Puerto Rico code 072 remains without a Census county. Source local dates/times have no supplied UTC offset and unknown time codes remain unknown. Do not infer fault, impairment, grant eligibility or crash rates from counts alone. Raw vehicle/person tables are not normalized into this crash-level collection."
  ],
  "source_attribution": {
    "nhtsa-fars": "NHTSA FARS original CSV ZIP publications. https://www.nhtsa.gov/crash-data-systems/fatality-analysis-reporting-system"
  },
  "metric_definitions": {
    "case_id": {
      "meaning": "Native ST_CASE padded to six digits; reporting year and source jurisdiction form the crash key"
    },
    "fatalities": {
      "unit": "persons killed within the FARS 30-day qualifying definition; not crash count"
    },
    "reported_counts": {
      "meaning": "Native source vehicle/person count variables, with year-specific definitions; absent fields are not available and are not inferred"
    },
    "year": {
      "meaning": "Published reporting-file year; unknown/mismatched source YEAR codes remain flagged with no invented calendar date"
    },
    "county_fips": {
      "meaning": "Derived from native year-specific GSA county code, without reassignment to current boundaries. Unmapped historic Puerto Rico code 072 is null."
    },
    "state_fips": {
      "meaning": "Census code; Puerto Rico is 72 while native FARS state is 43"
    },
    "coordinate_method": {
      "meaning": "Source decimal degrees, explicitly converted legacy DMS west coordinates, or unlocated source status"
    },
    "crash_local": {
      "meaning": "Source local date and time, no UTC offset. Unknown time is null; known date remains separately available."
    },
    "distance_m": {
      "unit": "straight-line meters to source crash point, not driving distance or a surveyed road match"
    }
  }
}

Captured 2026-11-05. Excerpt omits pagination credentials and may shorten nested records. Download verified source responses.

Coverage and interpretation

NHTSA FARS is a census of qualifying fatal motor-vehicle traffic crashes, not all crashes, nonfatal injuries, insurance claims, traffic exposure or a modeled risk rate. A qualifying crash involves a trafficway customarily open to the public and a death within 30 days. One row is one crash; fatalities, vehicles and persons are separate units. Data definitions/codes change by year and annual releases can be revised; source editions and distribution channels remain explicit. Historic records before 1999 generally have no source coordinates; missing/sentinel/invalid locations stay unlocated, with no fabricated geocoding or road snapping. Legacy degree/minute/second coordinates are converted only when their source format is valid and the method is labelled. Published points do not establish survey/parcel accuracy or a roadway segment match. Native FARS state 43 denotes Puerto Rico and is separately mapped to Census state 72; native case IDs remain unchanged. County codes are native year-specific GSA codes, not a current-boundary spatial assignment; unmapped historic Puerto Rico code 072 remains without a Census county. Source local dates/times have no supplied UTC offset and unknown time codes remain unknown. Do not infer fault, impairment, grant eligibility or crash rates from counts alone. Raw vehicle/person tables are not normalized into this crash-level collection. Original NHTSA CSV ZIP editions are retained with publisher revision headers and checksums. 2024 is the first annual release; 2023 is the final release, both published April 1, 2026. The daily source review checks the latest two years and a rotating historical shard; discovering a new annual edition requires review. Some early Puerto Rico publications omit calendar fields, which remain unknown.

The active release shown here is a catalog snapshot. Check the live catalog and response provenance for current readiness. The underlying public source and Geoamcan access terms are separate; consult the source’s licensing and attribution requirements.

Source and methodology

Source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Geoamcan is an independent API provider, with no agency affiliation or endorsement. Read our data methodology for source handling, geographic joins and update practices.

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