The Columbia, SC Crash Report 2026.

How has it changed?

From 2015 to 2019 Richland and Lexington counties recorded between 91 and 118 traffic deaths a year; from 2020 to 2024 between 98 and 131. Across 2015-2019 there were 523 deaths; across 2020-2024 there were 563. Nationally deaths went from 36,355 in 2019 to 39,254 in 2024; in South Carolina from 1,006 to 1,038 [2].

Where: the corridors

FARS records the road name and coordinates of every fatal crash [1]. Grouping the 1,019 crashes that carry a road name by corridor, the top five roads account for 32% of all fatal crashes. Since 2020 the top corridors by fatal crashes are: US-1 (37); I-20 (35); I-77 (31); I-26 (30); US-76 (24); US-21 (20).

Reading the map: dense lines of dots are roads where people have died repeatedly. Orange dots involve a pedestrian or cyclist. A crash being on a road says something about exposure (traffic volume, speed, design); it does not say who was at fault.

When: months, days, hours

Fatal crashes are spread across the year, with Jun the highest month (98 over ten years) and Feb the lowest (65). The pattern by hour matters more.

Who: people on foot, motorcyclists, drivers

Deaths by road-user type, 2015-2024: drivers (cars, trucks, SUVs, other): 526, pedestrians: 224, motorcyclists (rider or passenger): 182, passengers: 132, cyclists: 19. The largest age group among those killed was 25-34 (204). 23 children under 15 died.

What was involved

FARS flags contributing circumstances. Over 2015-2024, 383 fatal crashes (38%) were speeding-related, 362 (36%) involved a driver who was drinking or tested at 0.08 or above, 52 (5%) were hit-and-run, 109 (11%) involved a large truck and 178 (17%) a motorcycle. 57% happened in the dark. These flags overlap and describe the crash, not who caused it.

What this means for people on Columbia roads

• Interstates carry 22% of fatal crashes and arterial streets 58%; check the corridor list before choosing routes at night.
• People on foot account for 21% of deaths; 86% of those crashes were after dark.
• If you are hurt in a crash, keep records: where and when it happened, the police report number, photos, names of witnesses, your treatment and bills. See our free printable checklist and journal.

Methodology

• Fatal crash data: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) annual national CSV files for 2015-2024, downloaded from the FARS downloads page linked in Sources. 2024 is the latest year available as of 2026-11-09; NHTSA may revise recent years. We kept records with STATE=45 (South Carolina) and COUNTY in 079 (Richland County), 063 (Lexington County).
• Columbia vs county: crashes with FARS city code 520 (Columbia) are labelled Columbia; all other crashes in the county area are 'other' (suburbs, other towns, unincorporated). Code 520 appears on 19% of records.
• Rates: deaths divided by a fixed April 2020 population base and multiplied by 100,000. Census Bureau Vintage 2024 estimates base (April 1, 2020): Columbia city 136,805; Richland County 416,146 + Lexington County 293,912 = 710,058; South Carolina 5,118,252; U.S. 331,515,736. A single base is used for every year, so rates are approximate [3].
• Corridors: FARS TWAY_ID (primary road name) grouped by us to combine variants (for example 'I-59' with exit or ramp suffixes, and street names that differ only by direction prefix). Only the primary road is counted. Corridors are counts of fatal crashes, not risk per mile or per vehicle. Crashes with no road name are not in the corridor ranking.
• Road user: FARS PER_TYP; motorcyclists identified from vehicle body type 80-89. 'Alcohol' means a driver with police-reported drinking or a test result of 0.08+; 'speeding' means FARS marks any vehicle as speed-related; 'dark' includes lighted and unlighted roads. Crashes with unknown hour are excluded from time-of-day charts.
• Not counted: crashes where nobody died, unreported crashes, and anything after FARS's latest year. This edition uses FARS only; state crash databases (all crashes) are a later addition.
• Reproduce it: the cleaned CSVs are downloadable on this page. Raw NHTSA files are the public FARS downloads linked in Sources; code is Python 3 using only the standard library, charts are plain SVG.

Important notice

CrashFirst is not a law firm and does not give legal advice. This report is general, factual information drawn from public records. It does not say who is at fault in any crash and is not a substitute for advice from a licensed attorney. Crash figures are counts of recorded events, not predictions about any person's safety or claim.

Data can be quoted with attribution: 'CrashFirst Columbia Crash Report 2026, based on NHTSA FARS data.' Corrections: tell us and we will update the report.