Fatal car crashes in Beaumont, TX: deadliest roads, 2020-2024

From 2020 through 2024, federal crash records list 99 fatal crashes inside Beaumont, in which 105 people died. The roads with the most were I-10 with 29 fatal crashes, College St (US-90) with 10 and US-69 (street name not recorded) with 8.

Filing deadline, fault rule, insurance and the court for a crash in Beaumont: Beaumont, TX injury guide.

Federal records put Beaumont's toll for 2020 through 2024 at 99 fatal crashes and 105 deaths. The source is the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's census of fatal traffic crashes. The years 2020 to 2023 come from its Final Files, and 2024 from its Annual Report File, NHTSA's first release for that year, which may change when the final version is published.

Beaumont's yearly count fell for three years and then rose. The city had 29 fatal crashes and 29 deaths in 2020, the most of the five years, then 21 crashes and 25 deaths in 2021, 18 crashes and 19 deaths in 2022 and a low of 11 crashes and 11 deaths in 2023. In 2024 the count rose to 20 crashes and 21 deaths, 9 more crashes than in 2023.

Jefferson County as a whole recorded 214 fatal crashes and 230 deaths over the same years, so Beaumont accounts for 46 percent of both. Over the five years, the city's 105 deaths work out to an average of 21 a year. Among the 509 Texas places with fatal crashes in these records, Beaumont's toll ranks 12th; Houston, with 1,582 deaths, ranks first.

One road dominates the data. I-10 had 29 fatal crashes and 31 deaths inside Beaumont, 29 percent of the city's fatal crashes, with the most recent in 2024. That is more than the next three rows on the list combined: College St (US-90) with 10 crashes and 10 deaths, US-69 (street name not recorded) with 8 and 8, and US-90 (street name not recorded) with 7 and 7, its latest in 2023.

Below the top four, the list mixes numbered routes and city streets. Eastex Fwy (US-69 / US-287) had 5 fatal crashes, the latest in 2021, and Cardinal Dr (US-69) had 4, the latest in 2024. Washington Blvd, Delaware St and FM 364 had 3 fatal crashes and 3 deaths each, and Mlk Pkwy (State Route 380) had 2 crashes that killed 3 people, its latest in 2024.

The location codes point the same way. Of the 99 crashes, 58 happened away from any junction, 9 elsewhere within an interchange area and 7 on or related to an entrance or exit ramp, while just 15 were at or related to an intersection. Eleven crashes happened in a construction work zone, where questions about lane closures, signs and warnings can become part of a claim.

Evenings were the deadliest stretch. Between 6 p.m. and midnight there were 43 fatal crashes, and between midnight and 6 a.m. another 29, so 72 of the 99 fell between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.; only 11 happened between 6 a.m. and noon. By light condition, 66 happened after dark, 39 on lighted roads and 27 on roads with no lighting, against 31 in daylight and 2 at dusk.

Weekends carried the heaviest load. Sunday had 24 fatal crashes and Saturday 21, together 45 of the 99, while Monday had 8 and Tuesday 9. Weather was clear in 82 crashes, cloudy in 8, rainy in 7 and foggy or smoky in 2. More than half of the crashes, 57, involved a single vehicle; 32 involved two vehicles and 10 involved three or more.

In 70 of the 99 crashes, the first harmful event was not a collision with another vehicle in traffic. The first harmful event was striking a pedestrian in 29 crashes, the same number as collisions between vehicles in traffic; it was a concrete traffic barrier in 9 and a cyclist in 5. Among the collisions between vehicles, 11 were angle crashes, 8 rear-end, 7 head-on and 3 sideswipes between vehicles going the same direction.

More than a third of the people killed in Beaumont were outside a vehicle. Of the 105 deaths, 30 were pedestrians, 29 percent of the total, 5 were bicyclists and 1 was a person on a personal conveyance, a FARS category separate from pedestrians and cyclists. In all, 37 of the 99 crashes involved a pedestrian, cyclist or other person outside a vehicle.

Inside vehicles, 52 drivers and 17 passengers died, and 14 of those 69 occupants were on a motorcycle or moped. Pedestrian and cyclist claims raise questions that vehicle claims often do not: where the person was crossing or riding, what the driver could see and how fast the driver was going. Lighting is usually one of the first issues in a night case, and 27 of Beaumont's fatal crashes happened in the dark with no lighting.

The numbers here are hypothetical, chosen only to show how the rules apply. Suppose a pedestrian crossing a Beaumont street at night, away from an intersection, is struck by a driver and suffers a broken leg, with $40,000 in medical bills and $10,000 in lost wages, $50,000 in all. The driver's insurer accepts that its driver was going too fast for the conditions but says the pedestrian was 40 percent at fault for crossing where drivers would not expect someone.

Texas applies a modified comparative negligence rule with a 51 percent bar. A pedestrian whose share of the fault is 50 percent or less can still be paid, minus that share, while one found more than 50 percent at fault is barred. At 40 percent, the $50,000 becomes $30,000. At 51 percent it becomes nothing, so in a pedestrian case a few percentage points can decide whether anything is paid. Clothing, street lighting, sight lines and camera footage are the usual evidence on that question.

Two facts would change this example. If the pedestrian had been a child, the two-year lawsuit clock would generally pause until the child turned 18. And if the driver had been a city employee in a city vehicle, the claim against the city would run on a much shorter clock: 6 months, and some city charters are shorter (Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 101.101).

For a pedestrian or cyclist, the first days after a crash matter most, because the evidence of lighting, position and speed changes quickly. With 72 of Beaumont's 99 fatal crashes between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., photos taken later at the same hour can show what a driver could and could not see. The steps below apply to drivers and passengers too.

• Make sure the crash is reported. Under Tex. Transp. Code § 550.026, the driver in a crash that injures or kills anyone, or leaves a vehicle unable to be driven normally and safely, must report it immediately by the quickest means; inside Beaumont, that report goes to the local police.
• Ask the officer for the report number before you leave; it makes the officer's CR-3 report easier to find later.
• Photograph where the person was struck, the nearest streetlights, any crosswalk and the vehicle's damage, and note nearby businesses that may have cameras.
• If the crash happened in a work zone, photograph the signs, cones and lane layout before they change.
• Get medical care at once, even for injuries that seem minor, and keep every record.
• Avoid guessing about fault in any statement to an insurer; a share of fault assigned to the injured person reduces the claim and, above 50 percent, ends it.

A Beaumont crash lawsuit is typically filed in the Jefferson County District Court; depending on its facts, a case can belong in another county's court or in federal court instead. The general Texas deadline is two years from the date of injury (Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003), and a case filed after that is generally barred, however strong it was. Most claims settle without a trial, but once the deadline to sue has passed, the injured person's position in settlement talks carries far less weight.

For the families of the 105 people killed, the wrongful death deadline is the same length but runs from a different day: two years from the date of death (Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(b)). When someone is injured in a crash and dies later, the two dates differ, which is one reason to have an attorney check the deadlines early rather than counting from the crash alone.

The pedestrian in the example would face different rules in another state. Florida, Michigan, New York and New Jersey are no-fault states, where an injured person's own auto policy pays certain losses first, whoever was at fault. Texas is not a no-fault state: the at-fault driver's liability insurance is the primary source of payment, and Texas requires at least 30/60/25 in liability coverage, meaning $30,000 per injured person, $60,000 per crash and $25,000 for property damage.

Fault rules vary even more. Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia follow contributory negligence, which generally bars an injured person who was even slightly at fault, so the pedestrian's 40 percent share would mean no recovery there instead of a reduced one. Deadlines differ as well: Tennessee gives one year for most injury claims, where Texas generally gives two years.

Crash data can show where Beaumont's fatal crashes happened, not who was responsible for any one of them; an attorney must evaluate the facts of each. Ask Legal Matters is a personal injury lead-generation service that collects free case review requests from injured people in the United States and shares them with independent attorneys and law firms. It is not a law firm and does not give legal advice. Requests may be shared with independent attorneys and legal services partners who handle inquiries in Texas, and most personal injury attorneys work on contingency. If you were hurt in a Beaumont crash as a driver, passenger, pedestrian or cyclist, you can request a free case review.

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• What should you do after a car accident?

More on this type of claim: Car accidents: evidence, deadlines and when to ask an attorney.

• Beaumont, Texas: local injury guide, court and deadlines
• Car Accident Claims in the United States: The Complete Guide
• Pedestrian Accident Claims: Rights, Fault and Compensation

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