Houston traffic deaths dropped last year
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Traffic flows along Interstate 69 in southwest Houston. Photo: Jill Karnicki/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images
Houston saw fewer traffic deaths in 2025 than in 2024, preliminary data shows.
Why it matters: While lower, the 2025 death toll was still higher than yearly counts before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The big picture: Traffic deaths fell nationwide in 2025 to their lowest since 2019, before they spiked during the pandemic. But in Houston, the decline hasn't kept pace.
Driving the news: Last year, 300 people died and 1,516 people were seriously injured in traffic crashes on roadways in Houston, according to crash report data from the Texas Department of Transportation compiled by Axios.
By the numbers: Of 2025's traffic deaths, 99 were pedestrians and 10 were cyclists. There were 280 fatal crashes total, with some crashes claiming multiple lives.
- The majority (154) of the 280 crashes happened on city-operated streets. Ninety crashes occurred on an interstate, and 36 happened on a state highway, tollway, farm-to-market road or a "non trafficway."
Flashback: Houston saw 209 traffic deaths in 2018, 263 in 2019, and 269 in 2020.
- The annual death count jumped to 325 in 2021 and 324 in 2022, before falling to 300 in 2023.
- In 2024, 341 people died.
Zoom in: Data shows that police cited a driver's failure to drive in a single lane as the top contributing factor in Houston's fatal crashes in 2025.
- More than 70% of the city's pedestrian deaths were believed to be due to the pedestrian's failure to yield the right of way to the driver, per the data.
- There were five pedestrian deaths in which the driver was believed to have failed to yield the right of way.
Zoom out: Across all of Harris County, which includes Houston, suburban cities and unincorporated areas, 517 people died in traffic crashes and 2,758 were seriously injured in 2025.
The intrigue: In 2024, traffic deaths (341) outpaced homicides (330) in the Bayou City, per state data and Houston Police Department records.
- Homicides once again outpaced traffic deaths in 2025. Both homicides and traffic deaths decreased from 2024 to 2025.