Motor Vehicle Traffic Crash Death Rates by County, New Mexico, 2016-2020

Why Is This Important?

Motor vehicle traffic crash-related injuries were the second leading cause of injury death in 2020 for New Mexicans aged 1 to 24 years (11.4/100,000 population). Males between the ages of 15 to 24 years die from motor vehicle traffic crash-related injuries at a rate that is nearly twice the rate for females of the same age. Rural and mixed rural-urban counties have higher rates of motor vehicle traffic crash-related injury death. The increased risk in rural and mixed rural-urban counties may be due to a greater number of vehicle miles driven, limited policing of speed limits, increased prevalence of two-lane roads, and longer response times of paramedics and other emergency responders after an injurious motor vehicle crash has occurred. Distracted driving, speeding, fatigue, and drunk driving are important causes of motor vehicle traffic crash-related injury deaths.

Definition

The number of unintentional injury deaths due to motor vehicle traffic crashes per 100,000 population. Motor vehicle traffic crash deaths are unintentional deaths from motor vehicle crashes that occurred on a public roadway.

Data Notes

Data Sources

• New Mexico Death Data: Bureau of Vital Records and Health Statistics (BVRHS), Epidemiology and Response Division, New Mexico Department of Health.
  (https://www.nmhealth.org/about/erd/bvrhs/vrp/)
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, CDC WONDER Online Database
  (http://wonder.cdc.gov)
• New Mexico Population Estimates: University of New Mexico, Geospatial and Population Studies (GPS) Program.
  (http://gps.unm.edu/)

How the Measure is Calculated

Data Issues

• Death Certificate Data

  Death certificate information is submitted electronically by funeral directors, who obtain demographic information from an informant, a close family member of the decedent. The NMDOH Bureau of Vital Records and Health Statistics (BVRHS) does annual trainings for funeral directors and local registrars and the death certificate information goes through extensive scrutiny for completeness and consistency. The cause of death is certified by the decedent's physician or the physician that attended the death. Accidental and suspicious deaths are certified by the Office of the Medical Investigator. When death certificates are received the cause of death literals are keyed into software locally by the BVRHS, then shipped to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) where they are machine coded into ICD-10 cause-of-death codes. NCHS returns the ICD-10 codes to BVRHS where the death records are updated.

• New Mexico Population Estimates

  All population estimates apply to July 1 of the selected year. These estimates are considered the most accurate estimates for the state of New Mexico and should match those found on the University of New Mexico Geospatial and Population Studies website. Estimates include decimal fractions. Census tract population estimates were summed to produce County and Small Area population estimates. Population estimate totals may vary due to rounding. Population estimates for previous years are occasionally revised as new information becomes available. When publishing trend data, always be sure that your rates for earlier years match current rates on NM-IBIS that have been calculated with the most up-to-date population estimates.

Health Topic Pages Related to: Injury - Motor Vehicle Traffic Crash Deaths

• Injury and Violence
• Leading Causes of Death