Traffic fatalities fell by 3 percent, but overall crashes rose slightly
The Michigan State Police (MSP) has released the final traffic crash data for 2025, showing that traffic fatalities declined in several key categories compared to 2024.
According to the MSP Criminal Justice Information Center (CJIC), the number of overall roadway fatalities dropped to 1,065 in 2025, a 3 percent decrease from the 1,099 deaths the previous year. Total crashes increased slightly to 290,221—up 0.5 percent from the 288,880 recorded in 2024.
There was good news in numerous areas, including distracted driving-involved fatalities, which decreased 32 percent from 65 in 2024 to 44 in 2025; drug-Involved fatalities, which decreased 23 percent from 272 to 210; and teen (aged 13-19) fatalities, which fell by 21 percent from 77 deaths to 61.
Unfortunately, in 2025, vulnerable roadway users experienced increases in fatalities, including bicyclist-involved deaths, which rose 21 percent from 29 in 2024 to 35 in 2025; pedestrian fatalities, which increased 18 percent from 156 to 184; and Commercial Motor Vehicle-involved fatalities, which increased 16 percent from 110 to 128.
Alicia Sledge, director of the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning (OHSP), said the 2025 crash numbers show that the debut of the
SAFER by 2030 initiative, with the goal of reducing roadway fatalities 30 percent by 2030, has positively impacted traffic safety. The collaborative effort by numerous statewide agencies and safety partners has helped emphasize the three main focus areas that save lives on our roads: Awareness, Engagement and Enforcement.
“Michigan made progress in several traffic safety areas in 2025, but increases elsewhere offset some of those gains,” Sledge said. “Since launching the SAFER by 2030 initiative in December 2025, we’ve seen renewed focus on safety and early signs that outreach tactics by SAFER partners are helping reduce roadway deaths.”
The 2025 crash data also revealed other areas of progress from 2024 to 2025, which showed that alcohol-involved fatalities decreased 14 percent from 307 to 264; work zone fatalities decreased 14 percent from 28 to 24; and motorcyclist fatalities decreased 10 percent from 168 to 151.
CJIC serves as the statewide center for collecting, managing and sharing criminal justice data to support public safety decisions across Michigan. Additional traffic crash data for 2025 can be found on the
CJIC webpage. In addition, CJIC is excited to announce the launch of the Michigan Traffic Crash Dashboard, available on the
CJIC Dashboard Portal, which offers a streamlined, user-friendly way for the public to access summarized traffic crash data. The dashboard provides interactive visualizations, statistical summaries, crash trends and the ability to view crash locations on a map. It is updated nightly with current crash data and contains 10 years of historical statistics.
