TEXAS NAMED-HIGHWAY FATAL-CRASH ANALYSIS, 2022–2024
Publisher of this analysis: Texas Truck Accident Lawyer
Source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS)
Retrieval: 2026-09-18

This is an analysis of fatal-crash burden, NOT risk per trip, per mile, or per vehicle-mile. It is not live traffic information or a complete ranking of all Texas roads. No causal finding, alternative-route safety recommendation, or claim that truck drivers caused these crashes is supported by these files.

Files
route-year.csv: one row per matched highway group per year. fatalCrashes counts unique crash records; deaths sums FATALS. A zero means zero included records for that route/year under this method, not proof no death occurred anywhere on the physical corridor.
route-county.csv: the same included records aggregated by route group and reported county across the full three-year window. County totals are not precise road segments.
classification-audit.csv: every Texas accident.csv record's year, ST_CASE (case), raw primary and secondary road identifiers, route system, relation to junction, assigned group and inclusion/exclusion reason. Source case identifiers are public FARS identifiers, not Texas CRIS IDs. Secondary roads are preserved for audit only and never added to the totals.
reproduce.py: standard-library Python 3 script. Download the three original ZIPs into a directory, then run `python reproduce.py INPUT_ZIP_DIR OUTPUT_DIR`. It writes the analysis JSON and CSV files from source. The script requires no paid services or API credentials.

Official input URLs
https://static.nhtsa.gov/nhtsa/downloads/FARS/2022/National/FARS2022NationalCSV.zip
https://static.nhtsa.gov/nhtsa/downloads/FARS/2023/National/FARS2023NationalCSV.zip
https://static.nhtsa.gov/nhtsa/downloads/FARS/2024/National/FARS2024NationalCSV.zip

Method
Filter accident.csv to STATE=48. Deduplicate by YEAR + ST_CASE (duplicate source keys fail validation). Include only ROUTE 1 (Interstate), 2 (U.S. highway) or 3 (state highway), where the primary TWAY_ID begins I-, US- or SR- followed by a number and the prefix matches the coded route system. Display SR as SH. Group branch and direction suffixes under the parent route number: I-35 includes I-35E and I-35W; I-69 includes its lettered branches. Do not use TWAY_ID2 to add or move a crash. Records on concurrent routes remain with the primary source name, not every possible route designation.

Exclude names explicitly containing RAMP, FRONTAGE, FRNTG, FRONT, SERVICE, SERV, SVRD, SV, FEEDER, ACCESS, CONNECTOR, BUSINESS, BUS, BU or SPUR as whole words, and exclude RELJCT2=20 (entrance/exit ramp). Source naming and coding determine inclusion; this is not an independent geographic reconciliation of every mainline, ramp or frontage road. Do not describe the numbers as exhaustive mainline totals.

Coverage reconciliation
11,617 Texas fatal-crash records across 2022–2024.
5,493 matched included crashes in 291 numbered-highway groups.
5,579 outside the selected route-system codes.
535 excluded explicit access/ramp/business/spur/connector records or ramp locations.
10 unmatched primary names, retained in classification-audit.csv rather than guessed.
Seven included crashes lack usable coordinates within the Texas bounding box. They remain in totals but are omitted from map points. Map positions are reported historical coordinates, not a finding that a specific intersection or segment is statistically a hotspot. Geographic outline: Census 2024 cartographic state boundaries. Reference city points: Census 2024 Texas place gazetteer.

Limitations
All vehicle types and road users are included, including people walking; this is not truck-only or occupant-only data. Nonfatal crashes are absent. Longer and busier roads have greater opportunities to accumulate crashes. There is no route length, traffic-volume or vehicle-mile denominator. Treat small county/year counts cautiously. Federal FARS totals and TxDOT CRIS totals need not match because definitions, revisions and timing differ. Downloads may later be revised; this analysis documents a dated retrieval and does not assert that 2024 is final or the newest obtainable year.

Suggested citation
Texas Truck Accident Lawyer, "Most Dangerous Highways in Texas: What the Crash Data Shows," analysis of NHTSA FARS 2022–2024 downloads retrieved September 18, 2026.
https://texastruckaccidentlawyer.com/blog/most-dangerous-highways-in-texas