Wilmington · Crash numbers
Wilmington and New Hanover County Crash Numbers
Across 2023, 2024 and 2025, NCDOT's 2025 city ranking credits Wilmington with 15,397 reported crashes, 39 of them fatal crashes. In 2024 alone, 29 people died in New Hanover County crashes, while the county's printed 10 Year Average stands at 21. No count here speaks to who caused your crash.
People killed in crashes, New Hanover County
| 2024 | 29 |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 19 |
| Yearly average, 2014 to 2023 | 21 |
The Wilmington numbers on this page are from the NCDOT Traffic Safety ranking of larger cities, and the county numbers are from NCDOT's New Hanover County crash profile and the NCDMV's Traffic Crash Facts for 2024. Tables carry the numbers, and the text around them explains what each one means, and does not mean, for a person injured in Wilmington.
The sections cover Wilmington's three-year totals, the same totals for Jacksonville and Leland, New Hanover County crashes by severity, county traffic deaths, what the ranking leaves undefined, and the limit of any crash count.
01
Wilmington's totals in NCDOT's two newest city rankings
Wilmington's row in the 2025 Ranking of Cities with Populations of 10,000 or More, which NCDOT bases on all reported crashes from January 1, 2023 through December 31, 2025, prints 15,397 total crashes, 39 fatal crashes, 3,395 non-fatal injury crashes and an alcohol-related share of 4.32 percent.
| Edition of NCDOT's city ranking | Reported crashes included | Total Crashes | % Alcohol Related Crashes | Fatal Crashes | Non-Fatal Injury Crashes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 edition | January 1, 2023 to December 31, 2025 | 15,397 | 4.32% | 39 | 3,395 |
| 2024 edition | January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2024 | 15,210 | 4.28% | 37 | 3,234 |
The two windows overlap by two years, so the rows are not separate periods to add together. Each one is a rolling three-year count of crashes, and neither counts people.
02
Jacksonville and Leland in the same 2025 NCDOT ranking
Jacksonville's row in the same 2025 ranking shows 7,233 total crashes and Leland's shows 2,321, both for the period of January 1, 2023 to December 31, 2025.
| City (crashes January 1, 2023 to December 31, 2025) | Total Crashes | % Alcohol Related Crashes | Fatal Crashes | Non-Fatal Injury Crashes | Residents per Census V2025 (July 1, 2025) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wilmington | 15,397 | 4.32% | 39 | 3,395 | 126,809 |
| Jacksonville | 7,233 | 2.64% | 22 | 1,240 | 72,732 |
| Leland | 2,321 | 2.63% | 7 | 298 | 35,731 |
Wilmington is the largest of the three by the Census Bureau's V2025 estimates, and its crash count is the largest as well. I read a larger raw count in a larger city as a matter of size. Nothing in the count shows whether one Wilmington intersection carries more risk than a road in Leland.
Read these rows as the scale of each city's crash load. They are not a measure of how safe any one road is.
03
New Hanover County crashes by severity, 2020 through 2024
New Hanover County had 5,835 reportable crashes in 2024 by NCDOT's county crash profile for that year, with 27 in the Fatal row and 1,504 in the Non Fatal Injury row. The profile's third row, printed as PDO (No Injury), holds the other 4,304 crashes, the ones with no injury.
| New Hanover County, reportable crashes | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 5 Year Avg. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fatal | 16 | 28 | 19 | 18 | 27 | 21.6 |
| Non Fatal Injury | 1,260 | 1,323 | 1,313 | 1,444 | 1,504 | 1,368.8 |
| PDO (No Injury) | 3,781 | 4,239 | 4,285 | 4,345 | 4,304 | 4,190.8 |
| Total | 5,057 | 5,590 | 5,617 | 5,807 | 5,835 | 5,581.2 |
The same profile prints an Injuries column beside each crash count, with 29 in the Fatal row and 2,170 in the Non Fatal Injury row for 2024. Those Injuries figures count injuries rather than crashes, and a single crash can add several of them.
04
New Hanover County traffic deaths in 2024 beside the ten-year average
The county death table in the 2024 Traffic Crash Facts from the NCDMV, its Fatalities by County: 10 Year Trend table, lists 29 people killed in New Hanover County crashes in 2024. The same row shows 19 for 2023, and its 10 Year Average column for the county reads 21, a figure that matches the rounded mean of the yearly counts for 2014 through 2023, which keeps 2024 out of it.
| Fatalities by County, 2024 Crash Facts | 2024 | 2023 | 10 Year Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Hanover County | 29 | 19 | 21 |
| North Carolina | 1,732 | 1,686 | 1,532 |
The 29 in the Crash Facts table is the same figure the county crash profile prints in its 2024 Fatal row under Injuries. Every one of the 29 was a person, and a row of numbers cannot tell how any one of them died.
Every one of the 29 was a person.
The claim a family can bring after a New Hanover County crash death, and its own deadline, is covered under wrongful death claims.
05
What NCDOT's Wilmington ranking leaves undefined
NCDOT's city ranking criteria name the factors behind each city's place, starting with the totals for crashes, for non-fatal injury crashes and for fatal crashes, then per-person crash rates, equivalent property damage, a severity index and crash cost. The criteria document gives no weights and is silent on which end of the scale a rank of 1 sits.
Exception. The 2025 ranking prints a Ranking column for Wilmington, and I leave it off this page. A rank with no stated direction or weighting tells an injured person nothing they can rely on.
Where the NCDMV's 2025 Crash Facts stands
The NCDMV's Crash Facts Archive lists editions up through 2024 for download, and its Crash Facts page routes 2025 report requests to the operations-support@ncdot.gov mailbox. That is why the county death figures here are taken from the posted 2024 edition.
06
A city crash total and the facts of one Wilmington crash
A Wilmington crash total counts reported crashes across a whole city over three years, and who caused any single one of them is outside what it measures. I judge fault from the facts of one crash, never from a city figure.
What bears on your claim is what happened in your own Wilmington crash, as shown by its report, the scene and any witnesses.
The Wilmington crash report page lists the WPD and UNCW request routes, the Wilmington city page covers how we start talking and the visit, and a claim after a crash on a city street is explained under car accident claims.
Questions
Common questions
Can I compare the Wilmington crash total with New Hanover County's?
The two figures cover different periods. NCDOT's city ranking gives Wilmington 15,397 crashes across three years, 2023 to 2025, and the county profile gives New Hanover County 5,835 crashes in the single year 2024. Neither can be subtracted from the other.
Does the Wilmington crash count include crashes at UNCW?
NCDOT's 2025 city ranking gives no rule for which crashes count toward a city, which leaves open whether a crash on UNCW property is inside the Wilmington total. Crash reports for university property sit in the campus police department's own database.
Where are the 2025 New Hanover County traffic death figures?
For 2025, the NCDMV takes Crash Facts requests at operations-support@ncdot.gov, while its download archive stops at the 2024 edition. This page's New Hanover County death counts rely on that 2024 edition.
About the attorney
Julian Doby, attorney since 1998
Julian Doby has been admitted to practice in North Carolina since 1998, North Carolina State Bar No. 25407, and he represents injured people across the state. His one office is at 110 W. Elm Street in Graham. He meets clients across the state after a first conversation by phone or video.
More about JulianSources and verification (10)
- NCDOT Traffic Safety, 2025 Ranking of Cities with Populations of 10,000 or More (crashes January 1, 2023 through December 31, 2025), verified October 18, 2026.
- NCDOT Traffic Safety, 2024 Ranking of Cities with Populations of 10,000 or More (crashes January 1, 2022 through December 31, 2024), verified October 18, 2026.
- U.S. Census Bureau, QuickFacts, Wilmington city, North Carolina, Population estimates, July 1, 2025, (V2025), verified October 18, 2026.
- U.S. Census Bureau, QuickFacts, Jacksonville city, North Carolina, V2025, verified October 18, 2026.
- U.S. Census Bureau, QuickFacts, Leland town, North Carolina, V2025, verified October 18, 2026.
- NCDOT Traffic Safety, 2024 New Hanover County Crash Profile, verified October 18, 2026.
- NCDMV, North Carolina 2024 Traffic Crash Facts, Fatalities by County: 10 Year Trend (page 6), verified October 18, 2026.
- NCDOT Traffic Safety, City/County Ranking Criteria, verified October 18, 2026.
- NCDMV, Crash Facts and Reporting page (2025 report by email request), verified October 18, 2026.
- NCDMV, Crash Facts Archive, verified October 18, 2026.
Talk first. Then I can come to you.
Call or send a visit request. We start by phone or video.