Fatal Crashes Only

This report covers fatal crashes only, from the NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System — the federal census of every crash on a US public road that killed someone within 30 days. It does not include injury or property-damage-only crashes, and its totals are not comparable with the all-severity crash reports published elsewhere on this site.

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Yearly Traffic Safety Analysis

1,200 CRASHES IN
ARIZONA
2022

All metrics benchmarked against2021

In 2022, Arizona experienced 1,200 total crashes, an 11.52% increase from the 1,076 crashes reported in 2021. Fatalities also rose by 10.74%, from 1,192 to 1,320, while total injuries decreased by 10.01% from 969 to 872. The most notable shift was the significant increase in crashes occurring in speed zones of 25 mph or less, which saw a 78.95% rise.

1,200

▲ 11.5%was 1,076

Total Crash Events

1,320

▲ 10.7%was 1,192

Persons Killed

872

▼ -10.0%was 969

Persons Injured

112

▲ 25.8%was 89

Hit-and-Run Crashes

Note: "Persons Killed" (1,320) counts individual fatalities across all crash events. "Fatal" in the severity table below (1,200) counts crash events where at least one fatality occurred. A single crash can result in multiple fatalities.

Source: NHTSA FARS (Fatal Crashes) · Federal fatal-crash census · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Aggregate counts from crash, person, and vehicle records

Trend Summary

Overall, crash and fatality numbers in Arizona increased year-over-year. Total crashes rose by 11.52%, from 1,076 in 2021 to 1,200 in 2022. Fatalities also saw an increase of 10.74%, from 1,192 to 1,320, indicating a rising trend in severe crash outcomes. Conversely, total injuries decreased by 10.01%, from 969 to 872.

112

Hit-and-Run Crashes — 2022

▲ 25.8% vs prior (89)

Hit-and-run crashes increased by 25.84%, rising from 89 incidents in 2021 to 112 in 2022. The hit-and-run rate also increased, moving from 8.3% of total crashes in 2021 to 9.3% in 2022.

Vulnerable Road User Casualties

297

Pedestrians Killed

Prior: 250↑18.8%

Cyclists Killed

Prior: 45↑13.3%

962

Motorists Killed

Prior: 888↑8.3%

Other Killed

Prior: 9↑11.1%

Pedestrians Injured

Prior: 14→0.0%

Cyclists Injured

Prior: 15↓-100.0%

858

Motorists Injured

Prior: 938↓-8.5%

Other Injured

Prior: 2↓-100.0%

Source: NHTSA FARS (Fatal Crashes) · Federal fatal-crash census · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Mode classified from person records (driver/passenger → motorist; pedestrian; bicyclist → cyclist; in-line skater / unspecified → other)

When Crashes Happen

The peak day for crashes shifted from Friday with 194 crashes in 2021 to Saturday with 212 crashes in 2022. The peak hour for crashes also shifted slightly, from 8 PM with 77 crashes in 2021 to 7 PM with 79 crashes in 2022. Notably, March and October experienced significant increases in crashes in 2022 compared to 2021, with March rising from 78 to 120 crashes and October from 87 to 120 crashes.

Source: NHTSA FARS (Fatal Crashes) · Federal fatal-crash census · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Crash date field aggregated by weekday

Source: NHTSA FARS (Fatal Crashes) · Federal fatal-crash census · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Crash time field aggregated by hour (0-23)

Road & Environmental Conditions

Crashes occurring in clear weather increased by 141, from 813 in 2021 to 954 in 2022, and represented a slightly larger proportion of total crashes (79.5% in 2022 vs. 75.56% in 2021). Crashes during daylight hours increased by 77, from 421 to 498, and also comprised a slightly higher percentage of total crashes (41.5% in 2022 vs. 39.12% in 2021). The proportion of crashes occurring in dark, unlighted conditions decreased from 17.66% in 2021 to 14.58% in 2022.

Weather

Clear954 (80.4%)

↑17.3%prior 813

Reported as Unknown109 (9.2%)

↑186.8%prior 38

Cloudy89 (7.5%)

→0.0%prior 89

Rain31 (2.6%)

↑47.6%prior 21

Snow3 (0.3%)

Fog, Smog, Smoke1 (0.1%)

Source: NHTSA FARS (Fatal Crashes) · Federal fatal-crash census · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Weather condition at time of crash

Lighting

Daylight498 (41.7%)

↑18.3%prior 421

Dark - Lighted370 (31.0%)

↑11.8%prior 331

Dark - Not Lighted175 (14.7%)

↓-7.9%prior 190

Reported as Unknown70 (5.9%)

↑218.2%prior 22

Dusk33 (2.8%)

↑43.5%prior 23

Dark - Unknown Lighting31 (2.6%)

→0.0%prior 31

Dawn16 (1.3%)

↓-30.4%prior 23

Source: NHTSA FARS (Fatal Crashes) · Federal fatal-crash census · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Lighting condition field

Vehicles & Demographics

The total number of vehicles involved in crashes increased by 6.64%, from 1,732 in 2021 to 1,847 in 2022. The count of 'UNKNOWN MAKE' vehicles involved in crashes saw a significant increase of 90.36%, rising from 83 to 158. There was a notable 39.74% increase in persons aged 65 and older involved in crashes, from 312 to 436.

Top Vehicle Makes (1,847 vehicles)

CHEVROLET196 (10.6%)

↓-12.5%prior 224

FORD194 (10.5%)

↓-10.2%prior 216

UNKNOWN MAKE158 (8.6%)

↑90.4%prior 83

TOYOTA155 (8.4%)

↓-8.3%prior 169

HONDA118 (6.4%)

↑3.5%prior 114

DODGE116 (6.3%)

↑6.4%prior 109

NISSAN/DATSUN100 (5.4%)

↑2.0%prior 98

HARLEY-DAVIDSON95 (5.1%)

↑46.2%prior 65

KIA54 (2.9%)

↑35.0%prior 40

JEEP / KAISER-JEEP / WILLYS- JEEP52 (2.8%)

↓-5.5%prior 55

Source: NHTSA FARS (Fatal Crashes) · Federal fatal-crash census · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Vehicle unit records

167 persons with unknown or unrecorded age excluded from age chart.

Sex Distribution (2,935 persons with recorded sex)

Male1,979 (67.4%)

↑6.2%prior 1,864

Female956 (32.6%)

↑3.9%prior 920

Source: NHTSA FARS (Fatal Crashes) · Federal fatal-crash census · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Person-level records linked to crash events

Speed Limit Zones

Crashes in speed zones of 25 mph or less saw a substantial increase of 78.95%, rising from 38 in 2021 to 68 in 2022. Crashes in the 30-35 mph speed zones also increased by 33.91%, from 115 to 154. In both periods, all crashes reported within the listed speed limits were fatal.

Fatal crashes by zone: 5 mph: 2 of 2 (100%) · 15 mph: 2 of 2 (100%) · 20 mph: 3 of 3 (100%) · 25 mph: 61 of 61 (100%) · 30 mph: 13 of 13 (100%) · 35 mph: 141 of 141 (100%) · 40 mph: 204 of 204 (100%) · 45 mph: 267 of 267 (100%) · 50 mph: 34 of 34 (100%) · 55 mph: 90 of 90 (100%) · 65 mph: 167 of 167 (100%) · 70 mph: 1 of 1 (100%) · 75 mph: 77 of 77 (100%)

Source: NHTSA FARS (Fatal Crashes) · Federal fatal-crash census · 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 · Posted speed limit at crash location

Data Sources & Methodology

Primary Data Source

All crash data in this report is sourced from NHTSA FARS (Fatal Crashes), accessed programmatically via the NHTSA FARS Open Data API (SODA). This dataset contains official police-reported motor vehicle traffic crash records maintained by the reporting jurisdiction's law enforcement agency. Records are published to the open data portal by the municipality and are subject to the portal's terms of use.

Data Retrieval

Access method: NHTSA FARS Open Data API (SoQL queries)
Data format: Structured JSON via REST API
Record types queried: Crash events, person records, and vehicle unit records
Date filter applied: 2022-01-01 through 2022-12-31
Report generated: August 5, 2026

Data Coverage

Reporting period: 2022-01-01 through 2022-12-31 (365 days)
Geographic scope: Arizona
Total crash records analyzed: 1,200
Total persons involved: 3,074
Total vehicles involved: 1,847

Analytical Methodology

Severity classification: Uses the KABCO injury scale (K=Fatal, A=Incapacitating injury, B=Non-incapacitating injury, C=Possible injury, O=No injury/property damage only), the standard classification in U.S. Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria (MMUCC). Severity is assigned per crash event based on the most severe injury in that crash. A single fatal crash (K) may involve multiple fatalities; therefore the "Persons Killed" count in the headline KPIs may differ from the "Fatal" crash count in the severity breakdown.
Contributing factors: Reflect the officer-determined primary contributory cause recorded at the time of the crash report. These are preliminary determinations and may not reflect final investigation findings.
Hit-and-run classification: Based on the hit-and-run indicator field in the official crash report, as determined by the responding officer at the scene.
Temporal analysis: Day-of-week and hour-of-day distributions are computed from the crash date/time timestamp in each record.
Demographics: Age and sex distributions are drawn from person-level records linked to each crash event. A single crash may involve multiple persons.
Vehicle data: Make information is drawn from vehicle unit records linked to each crash event.
AI commentary: Narrative sections are generated by Google Gemini (large language model) based on the structured data. Commentary is descriptive, not predictive, and should not be interpreted as expert opinion.

Limitations & Disclaimers

Only crashes reported to and documented by law enforcement are included. Minor incidents, unreported crashes, and near-misses are not captured in this dataset.
Data reflects conditions at the time of the initial police report and may be subject to subsequent corrections, reclassifications, or supplements by the reporting agency.
Open data portal records may experience a publication lag - recently occurring crashes may not yet appear in the dataset at the time of report generation.
AI-generated commentary is produced by a large language model and is intended to highlight patterns in the data. It does not constitute legal, medical, or professional analysis.
Percentages are calculated from reported data and are subject to rounding.

Non-Affiliation Disclosure

This report is produced independently by ThatCarHitMe.com (Injuria.ai). It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or produced in partnership with any law enforcement agency, municipal government, state department of transportation, or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Data is sourced from publicly available government open data portals.

Data License

The underlying crash data is provided under the municipality's Open Data Terms of Use and is made available to the public for unrestricted use. This analysis and report is © 2026 Injuria.ai and may be cited with attribution using the suggested citation below.

Corrections & Feedback

If you believe any data in this report is inaccurate or have questions about our methodology, please contact: data@injuria.ai. We are committed to accuracy and will issue corrections promptly.

Suggested Citation

ThatCarHitMe.com (Injuria.ai). "Arizona Crash Intelligence Report: 2022." Published August 5, 2026. Reporting period: 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31. Data source: NHTSA FARS (Fatal Crashes), NHTSA FARS Open Data. Available at: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/arizona/fatal/statewide/2022-annual-report

About the Publisher

ThatCarHitMe.com is a crash data intelligence platform developed by Injuria.ai, a legal technology company specializing in traffic safety analytics. We aggregate and analyze publicly available government crash data to produce structured intelligence reports for communities, researchers, journalists, and legal professionals. Our reports combine programmatic data retrieval from official open data portals with AI-assisted narrative analysis.

Questions about this report's data or methodology: data@injuria.ai

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