City of Houston crash statistics: deaths and serious injuries, 2015-2025

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) counted 60,317 crashes inside Houston city limits in 2025. They killed 293 people and seriously injured 1,465.¹ Deaths fell 13.6% from 339 in 2024, the highest count in the 2015-2025 series.

These counts include crashes on freeways and toll roads inside the city, not only city-maintained streets.¹

Houston traffic deaths by year

Deaths rose from 205 in 2015 to 339 in 2024, an increase of 65.4%. Over the same years the crash count stayed between 64,874 and 68,885 in every year except 2020.² The jump came in 2020 and 2021: deaths reached 270 in 2020, when crashes fell 15.5% during the pandemic, and 322 in 2021. After two years of decline, deaths hit 339 in 2024 (Texas Mobility Outlook’s calculation from TxDOT’s city tables).

Serious injuries peaked at 1,606 in 2023 and fell to 1,465 in 2025, the lowest since 2020.^1,2 A ten-year view of these numbers against the City’s goal is in Houston traffic deaths, 2015-2025.

Houston compared with other large Texas cities

Houston had more traffic deaths in 2025 than Dallas (172) and Fort Worth (112) combined. It also had 1.6 times as many reportable crashes as San Antonio, which had the second-highest count of the five.¹

These are raw counts that do not adjust for population or miles driven. Texas Mobility Outlook has not yet compiled verified population figures for a per-resident comparison.

Who dies in Houston traffic crashes

The City of Houston’s Vision Zero reports break deaths down by travel mode. Pedestrian deaths rose from 64 in 2018 to 115 in 2022, when people walking were 36% of everyone killed on Houston streets and 16% of the seriously injured.^3,4 Drivers and passengers made up the largest group every year.

The City has published no annual report since the 2022 edition. For later years, news analyses of TxDOT data report 119 pedestrians and 8 cyclists killed in 2024, and 99 pedestrians and 10 cyclists in 2025.^5,6 Houston pedestrian crash statistics has the county and city figures for people on foot. Where crashes concentrate is covered in the published intersection rankings and the freeway rankings.

Where fatal crashes happen: city streets and freeways

An Axios Houston analysis of TxDOT data counted 280 fatal crashes in Houston in 2025. Of those, 154 occurred on city-operated streets, 90 on interstates and 36 on state highways, tollways or farm-to-market roads.⁶ That puts 55% of fatal crashes on city streets and 32% on interstates (Texas Mobility Outlook’s arithmetic).

The City’s 2020 Vision Zero Action Plan found that 51% of traffic deaths and serious injuries from 2014 to 2018 occurred on city-owned streets.⁷

The high injury network that the City and Harris County drew from 2014-2018 crash data, a map of the street segments with the most severe crashes, leaves out interstates, U.S. and state highways and toll roads.⁸ The City says 6% of its streets account for 60% of its traffic deaths and serious injuries.⁹

Why Houston death counts differ by source

Four sources have published Houston death counts for the same years, and they rarely match. For 2024, TxDOT’s city table reports 339 deaths. The Houston Chronicle reported at least 345, which it called a record. Axios Houston reported 317.^2,10,11 For 2025, TxDOT reports 293 and Axios 300.^1,6

All four sources draw on TxDOT’s Crash Records Information System (CRIS). The likeliest reasons for the gaps are extract dates and boundary rules: each source pulls the data on a different date, and each decides which crashes count as inside the city. The City’s Vision Zero reports ran 4 to 12 deaths above TxDOT’s later city tables for each year from 2018 to 2022 (computed from the table above).

Texas Mobility Outlook uses TxDOT’s published city table as the main series. It is the only one that covers every year from 2015 to 2025, each edition states its extract date, and anyone can check it against the PDF. A news count is best cited with the outlet’s name and the date of its analysis.

Houston’s Vision Zero goal

Houston adopted Vision Zero by executive order in August 2019, with a goal of ending traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2030.¹³ The order cites 2014 to 2018, when the city averaged 219 deaths and 1,111 serious injuries a year. TxDOT’s count for 2025, 293 deaths, is 34% above that average, though the two figures come from different CRIS extracts. The goal and the City’s actions since 2019 are covered in Vision Zero in Houston.

Limits of the data

• Recent years can change. The 2025 figures reflect crash reports processed as of April 7, 2026, and earlier years as of April 9, 2025. TxDOT reissues past years as late reports arrive.
• No street-level detail. The city table does not name roads or intersections. Harris County crash statistics has deaths by road class for the whole county.
• News figures are not official. Axios and Chronicle counts are newsroom analyses of TxDOT data. They are useful for detail TxDOT does not publish, such as the split by road owner, but they are not official City totals.