The Texas After School Crash Window

Nearly Three of Every 10 Texas Crashes Occur After School

Between afternoon school dismissal and the end of the evening commute, Texas roads experience their heaviest sustained crash volume of the day.

To measure that pattern, we reviewed TxDOT's hour by hour crash tables for 2019, 2023, 2024, and 2025. We also compared those statewide Texas figures with national teen driver safety data published by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, AAA, and the National Safety Council.

The result is clear:

In 2025, Texas recorded 161,316 crashes between 3 and 7 p.m. That was 29.9% of every crash reported statewide during the year.

This concentration has been remarkably consistent:

The after school period is therefore not just a single day or single year pattern. It is a repeatable statewide traffic safety trend.

However, crash volume and fatal crash risk are not the same thing.

Both patterns matter. Families, schools, communities, and policymakers should understand the difference between the hours when crashes are most common and the hours when teen driving is most dangerous.

What TxDOT's 2025 Crash Table Shows

These figures come directly from TxDOT's 2025 Fatal and Nonfatal Crashes by Hour and Day of Week table, historically referred to as Table 17.

Texas reported 538,860 total crashes in 2025. The figures below cover all drivers, passengers, pedestrians, bicyclists, and age groups included in TxDOT's statewide crash reporting.

Texas Crashes by Hour of Day: 2025

The afternoon peak begins to build after 2 p.m., rises sharply through dismissal and the evening commute, and reaches its highest point between 5 and 6 p.m.

The After School Window Compared With the Broader Afternoon

The Afternoon, Hour by Hour

The peak volume occurs from 4 to 6 p.m., when school dismissal, teen driving, pedestrian activity, extracurricular travel, work commutes, and general traffic overlap.

Weekday Crash Volume

Using TxDOT's 2025 day of week columns, we calculated the following weekday totals for Monday through Friday:

• 129,184 nonfatal weekday crashes between 3 and 7 p.m.
• 153,166 nonfatal weekday crashes between 2 and 7 p.m.

These figures reinforce the broader finding: weekday afternoons are a major statewide crash period.

hour,non_fatal,fatal,combined
00:00-00:59,10026,151,10177
01:00-01:59,8191,164,8355
02:00-02:59,9595,190,9785
03:00-03:59,6568,124,6692
04:00-04:59,6283,116,6399
05:00-05:59,10358,138,10496
06:00-06:59,17962,136,18098
07:00-07:59,28533,116,28649
08:00-08:59,26499,91,26590
09:00-09:59,21072,86,21158
10:00-10:59,21599,104,21703
11:00-11:59,25038,104,25142
12:00-12:59,30332,109,30441
13:00-13:59,30105,134,30239
14:00-14:59,32064,130,32194
15:00-15:59,38230,138,38368
16:00-16:59,43437,132,43569
17:00-17:59,43586,145,43731
18:00-18:59,35451,197,35648
19:00-19:59,24956,182,25138
20:00-20:59,20126,222,20348
21:00-21:59,18578,204,18782
22:00-22:59,15212,200,15412
23:00-23:59,11583,163,11746
total,535384,3476,538860
source: TxDOT, Fatal and Nonfatal Crashes by Hour and Day of Week 2025 (as of April 7, 2026)

Crash Volume vs. Fatality Risk

The hours with the most crashes are not the same as the hours with the highest teen fatality risk.

The 3 to 7 p.m. period produces the largest share of Texas crashes. But national teen driver data shows that fatal risk becomes more concentrated later in the evening and overnight.

According to AAA, citing NHTSA crash data, more than one in four fatal teen driver crashes occur between 3 and 7 p.m.

That is an important safety finding because it overlaps with the Texas peak crash period. During these hours, teens may be driving home from school, commuting to work, attending practices or activities, transporting friends, or sharing congested roads with adults leaving work.

At the same time, national data identifies later hours as especially dangerous for fatal teen crashes.

TxDOT's statewide data shows a similar distinction between high volume crash periods and fatal crash timing.

• In 2025, Texas's deadliest single hour was 8 to 9 p.m., with 222 fatal crashes.
• In 2024, the deadliest single hour was 9 to 10 p.m., with 243 fatal crashes.
• The 3 to 7 p.m. period accounted for 612 fatal crashes in 2025, or 17.6% of the statewide fatal crash total.

The after school share of Texas fatal crashes has remained within a relatively narrow range:

The takeaway is not that one time period is safe and another is dangerous. Rather, each period presents a different type of risk:

The CDC reports that 44% of crash deaths among teens ages 13 to 19 occurred between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. It also reports that 50% occurred on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. (CDC, Risk Factors for Teen Drivers)

National Safety Council research also shows that young drivers' fatal crash risk can exceed their share of driving exposure. Drivers ages 16 and 17 take approximately 10% of their trips between 9 p.m. and midnight, but account for 19% of their fatal crashes during that period. Between midnight and 5:59 a.m., they make about 1% of their trips but account for nearly 15% of their fatal crashes.

The practical conclusion is straightforward:

The National Teen Driver Safety Data

Texas's hour by hour crash tables show when crashes happen statewide. National sources provide additional context about why teen drivers remain a high risk group.

Sources: IIHS Fatality Facts and NHTSA's Young Drivers report, DOT HS 813 736.

NHTSA found that young drivers represented 8.9% of drivers involved in fatal crashes in 2023, despite holding only 5.1% of all driver licenses. That gap reflects the higher fatal crash involvement rate among less experienced drivers.

The National Safety Council's analysis of 2024 NHTSA data reported 5,247 deaths in crashes involving at least one young driver, down 6.5% from 5,617 deaths in 2023.

Those deaths included:

• Young drivers: 2,162.
• Passengers riding with young drivers: 893.
• Occupants of other vehicles: 1,526.
• Pedestrians, bicyclists, and other people outside vehicles: 666.

This matters because young driver crashes affect far more people than the young driver alone. The National Safety Council reported that young drivers themselves represented about 41% of the deaths in crashes involving young drivers.

The Economic and Human Cost of a Serious Crash

Crash statistics can feel abstract until the consequences are measured in medical care, lost work, long term disability, family disruption, and loss of life.

NHTSA's The Economic and Societal Impact of Motor Vehicle Crashes, 2019 provides the following estimates:

Source: NHTSA, The Economic and Societal Impact of Motor Vehicle Crashes, 2019 (DOT HS 813 403, revised February 2023).

"Economic cost" includes measurable losses such as emergency response, hospital care, rehabilitation, property damage, insurance administration, legal costs, lost productivity, and workplace losses.

"Comprehensive cost" adds the value of reduced quality of life, pain, suffering, long term impairment, and the loss experienced by families and communities.

The After School Risk Is Not Limited to Teen Drivers

Teen drivers are only one part of the afternoon school dismissal environment. Students also walk, bike, wait at bus stops, cross major roads, and travel through congested parking lots and pickup lines.

The Texas A&M Transportation Institute analyzed TxDOT CRIS data for 2021 and reported:

Teen bicyclist crashes showed a similar daylight pattern: 74% occurred in daylight, and 84% involved a rider without a helmet.

The five Texas counties with the highest number of teen pedestrian crashes were:

• Harris County
• Dallas County
• Bexar County
• Tarrant County
• El Paso County

Source: Texas A&M Transportation Institute, Youth Transportation Safety Program, using TxDOT CRIS data for 2021 (cts.tti.tamu.edu).

What Texas Law Says About Teen Driving

Texas uses a graduated driver license system intended to reduce the risks associated with inexperience, nighttime driving, distraction, and peer passengers.

Under Texas Transportation Code Section 545.424, drivers under age 18:

• May not use a wireless communication device while driving.
• May not drive between midnight and 5 a.m. unless the trip is for work, a school activity, or a medical emergency.
• May not carry more than one passenger under age 21 who is not a family member.

Texas Transportation Code Sections 545.425 and 545.4252 also prohibit all drivers from using a wireless communication device in an active school zone during reduced speed hours and on school property.

Texas also incorporates the Impact Texas Teen Drivers program into the licensing process. The program is designed to address major teen driver risk factors, including distracted driving and unsafe decision making.

Parent Responsibility After a Crash

Texas does not recognize a broad "family purpose doctrine," meaning a parent is not automatically liable merely because a child was driving a family vehicle.

However, a parent or vehicle owner may face a negligent entrustment claim when they allow someone to drive despite knowing, or having reason to know, that the person is unlicensed, reckless, incompetent, or intoxicated.

When fault is disputed after a crash, Texas comparative responsibility rules under Chapter 33 generally govern how responsibility is allocated among the people and entities involved.

This section is educational only and is not legal advice.

How We Counted the Data, and What the Data Cannot Show

This study is designed to be transparent about both its findings and its limits.

1. The Defined After School Window

Our target period is 2:30 to 6:30 p.m., which generally corresponds with school dismissal, student travel, extracurricular activities, and the beginning of the evening commute.

TxDOT's published tables group crashes into full clock hour blocks. Because the public tables do not provide a 2:30 to 6:30 p.m. category, this study uses two transparent approximations:

We do not describe either period as an exact measurement of 2:30 to 6:30 p.m. The published data does not support that level of precision.

2. How Shares Were Calculated

Each percentage on this page is calculated using the following formula:

Using the same TxDOT table for both the numerator and denominator keeps the calculations internally consistent.

3. Driver Age Limitation

TxDOT's published hourly tables cover all drivers and road users, not just teens.

The public tables do not provide a combined breakdown by:

• Driver age
• Time of day
• Crash location
• School day status
• School proximity
• Crash severity

Texas specific teen driver analysis during dismissal hours would require a custom CRIS dataset extract. CRIS contains more detailed crash record information, including timestamps that may be recorded to the minute, but extracting and analyzing that data requires a separate methodology.

4. Injury Severity Limitation

TxDOT uses the KABCO injury severity framework. Changes to the suspected serious injury definition in 2010 limit direct comparisons with earlier data.

For that reason, this page focuses primarily on total crashes and fatal crashes rather than attempting to compare all injury categories across long time periods.

5. Data Revision Limitation

The 2025 TxDOT table was published on April 7, 2026. The 2024 table was published on April 9, 2025. TxDOT data may be revised after publication as records are updated or corrected.

6. Source Discipline

We included only figures that could be traced to a primary source or directly to a source's reported data.

Some frequently repeated Texas teen driving claims could not be verified through primary source material. Those claims were intentionally excluded.

From a General Crash Window to a Texas After School Crash Index

This page is the first phase of a larger project: the Texas After School Crash Index.

The next phase will focus on the specific question that public statewide tables cannot answer:

The planned research process is as follows:

1. 1Obtain a statewide CRIS public data extract and filter for drivers ages 15 to 19.
2. 2Limit the analysis to school days and the more precise 2:30 to 6:30 p.m. period using minute level timestamps where available.
3. 3Pilot the methodology in Austin, where open data records may provide person age, timestamps, and coordinates together.
4. 4Match crash locations with official Texas Education Agency and National Center for Education Statistics high school campus locations.
5. 5Test crash concentrations within one quarter mile, one half mile, and one mile of high school campuses.
6. 6Compare school day crash activity with summer and weekend activity during the same hours to separate dismissal related effects from normal rush hour traffic.
7. 7Weight results by crash severity and adjust for school enrollment and traffic volume where reliable data is available.
8. 8Suppress locations with fewer than five crashes to protect privacy and avoid publishing information that could identify a minor.

The goal is not to produce a list of schools with the most crashes. Raw totals can be misleading because large schools, dense urban areas, and high traffic corridors naturally generate more vehicle activity.

The project will be updated during future back to school seasons. Educators, school districts, reporters, researchers, and community groups interested in the methodology or underlying queries may contact the firm through the contact page.

Primary Sources Used in This Study

This study cites primary publications only. Read them yourself:

• TxDOT Crashes by Hour (2025)
• TxDOT Table 17 (2024)
• TxDOT Table 17 (2023)
• TxDOT Table 17 (2019)
• TxDOT Crash Facts 2023
• TxDOT Crash Records Information System
• Texas Transportation Code, Chapter 545
• Texas A&M TTI Youth Transportation Safety Program

• IIHS Fatality Facts: Teenagers
• NHTSA Young Drivers Report (DOT HS 813 736)
• NHTSA Crash Costs Study (DOT HS 813 403)
• CDC Teen Driver Risk Factors
• AAA: School's Open, Drive Carefully

National Safety Council figures cited in this study are from NSC Injury Facts: Teen Drivers. The publisher restricts automated access to certain pages, so the source is identified by name rather than linked here.

Public Interest Safety Research

This study was prepared by J. Alexander Law Firm as public interest traffic safety research.

All information on this page comes from aggregate, anonymized public data. The study did not access individual crash reports, identify individual people, or use crash data to contact anyone.

This page is intended for educational purposes only. It is not legal advice.

The research was reviewed by Josh Alexander, founder and managing attorney of J. Alexander Law Firm.

For a related analysis of crash locations statewide, see The Most Dangerous Intersections in Texas.

Published September 22, 2026. TxDOT's 2025 table is dated April 7, 2026; earlier tables are dated April 9, 2025. TxDOT data remains subject to revision. Media and research inquiries: use the firm contact page.