Between 2020 and 2026, Wharton County recorded 5,812 reported crashes, including 104 deaths and 287 serious injuries, according to the Texas Department of Transportation's Crash Records Information System (CRIS). The highest-crash corridor was U.S. Highway 59, with 1,744 crashes and 39 deaths over this period.
The 12 highway corridors ranked below account for 4,144 crashes — about 71% of every reported crash in the county — concentrating a large share of the area's most severe collisions onto a handful of roads.
Where the Crashes Concentrate
U.S. Highway 59
U.S. Highway 59 leads the county with 1,744 crashes, 39 deaths, and 89 serious injuries from 2020 through 2026. The most frequently recorded contributing factor in these crashes was “Failed To Control Speed.”
Across these corridors, the contributing factor recorded most often by investigating officers was “Failed To Control Speed” — a pattern consistent with high-speed, high-volume travel.
Highway Corridors Ranked by Crash Volume
| # | Corridor | Crashes | Deaths | Serious |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | U.S. Highway 59 | 1,744 | 39 | 89 |
| 2 | State Highway 60 | 607 | 19 | 30 |
| 3 | State Highway 71 | 607 | 11 | 20 |
| 4 | FM 1301 | 295 | 4 | 16 |
| 5 | FM 102 | 198 | 1 | 13 |
| 6 | Business 59 | 181 | 0 | 4 |
| 7 | FM 653 | 113 | 0 | 2 |
| 8 | FM 2765 | 109 | 0 | 6 |
| 9 | FM 442 | 108 | 4 | 10 |
| 10 | U.S. Highway 90 (Alt.) | 65 | 4 | 4 |
| 11 | FM 1161 | 62 | 2 | 4 |
| 12 | FM 1299 | 55 | 0 | 1 |
Ranked by total reported crashes, 2020–2026. Deaths and serious-injury counts are persons, not crashes.
Data & Methodology
The underlying crash records come from the Texas Department of Transportation's Crash Records Information System (CRIS), the official statewide record of reported traffic crashes, covering January 2020 through July 2026 in Wharton County.
The corridor‑level dataset on this page is original work produced by Local Traffic Accidents. We geocode the underlying incidents, match them to the numbered state‑highway system, and compute the per‑corridor crash, fatality, and serious‑injury totals, rankings, concentration shares, and per‑1,000 lethality rates shown here. The raw crash records are TxDOT's; the corridor identification, the derived statistics, and the rankings are our own.
Corridors are ranked by total reported crashes. “Deaths” counts persons killed and “serious injuries” counts persons with suspected serious injuries (the official KABCO “A” level), summed across all crashes on each corridor — not crash counts. This ranking covers the numbered state highway system (Interstates, U.S. and state highways, FM/RM roads, loops, and spurs); locally maintained surface streets are recorded under a separate, free-text field and are not included here. Each route is reported under its primary TxDOT designation; co-signed routes (for example, I-69 and U.S. 59) are noted but not combined.
Derived dataset & analysis: Local Traffic Accidents — corridor‑level geocoding, computation, and rankings, published as an original dataset.
Related Coverage
Explore live and recent crash coverage for Wharton County:
• Real-Time Houston-Area Accident Map — Live incident tracking
• Latest Accident Reports — Breaking crash coverage