epidemiology of motor vehicle collisions epidemiology of motor vehicle collisions worldwide it was estimated that 1.25 million people were killed and many millions more were injured in motor vehicle collisions in 2013. this makes motor vehicle collisions the leading cause of death among young adults of 15–29 years of age (360,000 die a year) and the ninth most frequent cause of death for all ages worldwide. in the united states, 40,100 people died and 2.8 million were injured in crashes in 2017, and around 2,000 children under 16 years old die every year. deaths for road traffic collisions per 100,000 inhabitants in 2012. no data < 5 5-10 10-15 15-20 20-25 25-30 30-35 35-40 > 40 road fatalities per 1 billion vehicle-km in 2004 no data < 5.0 5.0-6.5 6.5-8.0 8.0-9.5 9.5-11.0 11.0-12.5 12.5-14.0 14.0-15.5 15.5-17.0 17.0-18.5 18.5-20.0 > 20.0 history and trends annual us traffic fatalities per billion vehicle miles traveled (red), miles traveled (blue), per one million people (orange), total annual deaths (light blue), vmt in tens of billions (dark blue) and population in millions (teal), from 1921 to 2017