Have you ever thought that San Marcos drivers are the worst you’ve ever seen? Well, new data supports those frustrated thoughts that bubble up when you’re behind the wheel.
Consumer Affairs analyzed data from 2022, the most recent available data, by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and found that San Marcos had the second- worst drivers across the entire state of Texas. Even though current data wasn’t available for the study, it is obvious the trend has continued. July of this year alone saw two fatal crashes in San Marcos.
Consumer Affairs found that San Marcos earned a crash score of 56.6, calculated based on fatality data from car crashes, incidents of bad driving, speeding, DUIs and more. San Marcos had the second highest rate of fatalities per capita, with 22.34 fatalities per 100,000 residents. Speeding accounted for 47% of all fatalities in San Marcos. The pedestrian fatality rate in San Marcos is nearly twice the national average at 4.5 per 100,000 residents.
San Marcos Police Chief Stan Standridge said getting behind the wheel can be a perilous task due to drivers that are distracted or under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
“Driving is the most dangerous thing most people will do on any given day,” Standridge said. “We have all heard that distracted driving kills, but the evidence clearly shows that impaired driving absolutely kills.”
Steon Nichols, Consumer Affairs data analyst, said the main contributor to San Marcos' high crash score was that it had the second-highest rate of driving fatalities in 2022.
“Additionally, it had the fourth-highest rate of deaths due to speeding, the fourth-highest rate of deaths involving a positive blood alcohol concentration and the fifth-highest rate of deaths due to driving under the influence,” Nichols said. “To mitigate San Marcos’ high crash score, drivers should stay alert and focused and never drive under the influence.”
San Marcos Police Department Night Patrol Commander Sam Meyers was able to shed light on the specific locations of the traffic fatalities across the city from 2022 to 2024.
“For 2022, we had seven fatalities that occurred on IH 35 or the Access Road, three that occurred on SH 123, one on SH 80, one on SH 21, one on SL 82, one on RM 12, one on Hunter Road and one on Old Ranch Road 12 for a total of 16 fatalities,” Meyers said. “Approximately 75% of these crashes involved alcohol or drug use on one or more of the involved persons and many were also due to speed. Four of the fatalities were pedestrians and three involved Commercial Motor Vehicles. For 2023, we had eight fatalities on SH 123, seven on IH 35 or the Access Road, one on SL 82, two on SH 80 and one on a city roadway for a total of 19 fatalities. So far for 2024, we've had three on IH 35 and one on SH 123 for a total of four fatalities.”
Meyers said that in 2023, SH 123 surpassed IH 35 as the San Marcos roadway with the highest rate of fatalities.
“The biggest factors on IH 35 include speed, alcohol/ drug use and construction,” Meyers said. “For SH 123 the main factors are speed and alcohol/ drug use.”
The San Marcos Police Department has implemented programs and has charged offenders with specific crimes in an effort to mitigate these issues.
“We've implemented a traffic unit about a year and a half ago,” Meyers said. “We've had a ‘No Wreck Wednesday’ initiative to encourage public awareness. We have Data- Driven Approach to Crime and Traffic Safety zones where traffic and crime intersect, [which the National Institute of Justice stated are a law-enforcement model in which both location-based crime and automobile crash data is analyzed to determine where such incidents disproportionately occur and to employ targeted traffic enforcement strategies], and we prosecute fatality cases where probable cause exists for a criminal charge. The most common charges are Accident Involving Death — hit and run charge — and Intoxication Manslaughter.”
Nichols said many may be intimidated by Texas roads and highways and rightly so.
“It’s important to be aware of which Texas cities have high crash scores so that you can stay more alert while traveling,” Nichols said.
These statistics agree with those presented by the Texas Department of Transportation in February as part of the planning process for the future of the Interstate 35 corridor. In that study, Interstate 35 in San Marcos was one of multiple areas along the route that were highlighted as “crash hot spots.”
“From Austin to San Antonio is a really intense stretch in terms of the number of crashes,” Tx-DOT Public Information Officer Antonio Luján said in February. “There's more than 10,000 crashes along that entire corridor [from Austin to San Antonio from 2019-2023], and it's 10% higher than the statewide average. So that's why I think it's important to start looking into the future on how to create a roadway that is more safe for commuters.”
Of those, 58 were fatal crashes resulting in 68 deaths. The top five factors for crashes in that study were listed as failure to control speed, driver inattention, unsafe lane change, following too closely and faulty evasive action.
Consumer Affairs found that 21 cities in Texas have deadlier roads than the U.S. average. The national Crash Score is 28.6, and Texas’ average crash score is 32.6.
Nichols said the data revealed that Texas roads are more dangerous than the average U.S. road.
“In 2022, the United States experienced 42,514 fatalities from car crashes, while Texas accounted for 4,408 of these deaths,” Nichols said. “When adjusted for population size, Texas had 15.1 fatalities per 100,000 residents compared to the national rate of 12.8. This means Texas had nearly 17% more traffic deaths than the national average.”
The data analyzed by Consumer Affairs showed that not everyone in the Austin Metropolitan Area drives quite as erratically as San Marcans but still made the list for worst drivers. Austin was listed as the 18th for most dangerous drivers with a crash score of 30.5. Cedar Park was 41 on the list with a crash score of 17. Georgetown was listed 43 with a crash score of 15.3. Pflugerville had the best drivers on the worst driving list in the Austin Metropolitan Area with a crash score of only 9.3.
Other area cities that made the Consumer Affairs list for worst driving are New Braunfels and San Antonio. New Braunfels ranked 48 on the list with a crash score of 13.98. San Antonio ranked number 14 with a crash score of 34.24.
Consumer Affairs also compared the five deadliest Texas cities to drive in – Galveston (#1 with a crash score of 97.63), San Marcos (#2 with a crash score of 56.60), Wichita Falls (#3 with a crash score of 54.64), Midland (#4 with a crash score of 52.83) and Port Arthur (#5 with a crash score of 50.09) – to the U.S. National average. Those cities had 21.64 deaths per 100,000 people, and the national average was 12.84 deaths per 100,000 people. Those cities had 7.54 crashes per 100,000 people due to bad driving compared to 5.13 crashes per 100,000 people due to bad driving across the U.S. Those cities had 5.59 fatalities per 100,000 people due to driving under the influence, and the U.S. had 2.19 fatalities per 100,000 people due to driving under the influence. Those cities had 11.67 fatalities per 100,000 people due to speeding compared to 3.67 fatalities per 100,000 people due to speeding across the U.S. Those cities had 12.88 fatalities per 100,000 people involving a positive blood alcohol concentration compared to 4.79 fatalities per 100,000 people involving a positive blood alcohol concentration across the U.S.
ConsumerAffairs looked at Texas cities with a population of 50,000 or more to determine which had the worst drivers. Its researchers analyzed the most recently reported crash data from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration Fatality Analysis Reporting System. The study can be found at this link consumeraffairs.com/automotive/texas-cities-with-the-worst-drivers.html.
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