Between 2019 and 2023 the Missouri State Highway Patrol counted 136,852 crashes in St. Louis County and 71,846 in St. Louis City. The yearly count fell in both places over those five years. The county went from 32,012 crashes in 2019 to 27,720 in 2023, down 13.4 percent, and the city went from 15,774 to 13,554, down 14.1 percent. Injury crashes fell too, but more slowly, and that is the part of this page that matters most to a reader who was hurt.
| Year | Fatal | Personal injury | Property damage only | Total | Injury share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 74 | 7,025 | 24,913 | 32,012 | 21.9% |
| 2020 | 85 | 5,441 | 18,213 | 23,739 | 22.9% |
| 2021 | 97 | 6,244 | 21,409 | 27,750 | 22.5% |
| 2022 | 79 | 5,938 | 19,614 | 25,631 | 23.2% |
| 2023 | 92 | 6,447 | 21,181 | 27,720 | 23.3% |
| Year | Fatal | Personal injury | Property damage only | Total | Injury share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 57 | 4,179 | 11,538 | 15,774 | 26.5% |
| 2020 | 76 | 3,892 | 10,370 | 14,338 | 27.1% |
| 2021 | 64 | 3,948 | 11,037 | 15,049 | 26.2% |
| 2022 | 68 | 3,379 | 9,684 | 13,131 | 25.7% |
| 2023 | 49 | 3,647 | 9,858 | 13,554 | 26.9% |
What changed, year by year
The county's low year was 2020, with 23,739 crashes, 25.8 percent fewer than 2019. It climbed back to 27,750 in 2021, dipped to 25,631 in 2022, and finished at 27,720 in 2023. The city's path was flatter. Its 2020 drop was 9.1 percent, to 14,338; it rose to 15,049 in 2021, reached its low of 13,131 in 2022, and ended at 13,554 in 2023.
The compendium gives no reason for any of it. 2020 was the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the county's dip lines up with that year, but a crash table cannot separate one cause from another. This desk leaves it as a date, not an explanation.
Injury crashes fell more slowly than crashes
In the county, property damage only crashes fell 15.0 percent from 2019 to 2023, while personal injury crashes fell 8.2 percent. That moved the injury share up: 21.9 percent of county crashes were injury crashes in 2019, and 23.3 percent in 2023. The city moved the same direction by less, from 26.5 to 26.9 percent, and Missouri as a whole went from 24.1 to 25.4 percent.
So there were fewer crashes overall, but the injury crash made up a slightly larger slice of what was left. The table cannot say whether that reflects harder crashes, different reporting, or chance, and this desk will not pretend it can.
| Area | Fatal | Personal injury | Property damage only | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Louis County | 74 to 92 (+24.3%) | 7,025 to 6,447 (-8.2%) | 24,913 to 21,181 (-15.0%) | 32,012 to 27,720 (-13.4%) |
| St. Louis City | 57 to 49 (-14.0%) | 4,179 to 3,647 (-12.7%) | 11,538 to 9,858 (-14.6%) | 15,774 to 13,554 (-14.1%) |
| Missouri | 819 to 905 (+10.5%) | 37,832 to 34,820 (-8.0%) | 118,387 to 101,114 (-14.6%) | 157,038 to 136,839 (-12.9%) |
The fatal numbers, with a caution
Fatal crashes are the smallest column and the jumpiest. The county recorded 74, 85, 97, 79, and 92 fatal crashes from 2019 through 2023, so its 2023 figure is 24.3 percent above 2019 even as total crashes fell. The city went 57, 76, 64, 68, and 49. Missouri as a whole recorded 819 fatal crashes in 2019 and 905 in 2023.
A percent change on a number this small can swing hard on a handful of crashes, so read these as counts of lives lost, not as a trend line.
Five years, added up
Over the five years the county's rows add to 136,852 crashes, 31,095 personal injury crashes, and 427 fatal crashes. The city's add to 71,846 crashes, 19,045 injury crashes, and 314 fatal crashes. Together that is 50,140 injury crashes in five years across the two jurisdictions this desk covers. Those are this desk's sums of the five yearly rows; the Patrol does not print a five-year total.
What this means if you were hurt
A falling line is a statement about a region. It says nothing about the crash you were in. If you were in one of the 6,447 injury crashes in the county in 2023, or one of the 3,647 in the city, the trend did not make your crash smaller.
What five years do show is steadiness. In every year on this page, the county and the city together reported between 9,317 (2022) and 11,204 (2019) injury crashes. That is the ordinary background of a metro with four interstates and a long commute, and it is why this desk keeps saying the same plain thing: get examined this week, and let the exam be written down with a date on it. The dated record explains why the date matters to every clinician who comes after.
Why the newest year is 2023
The compendium publishes a year at a time, after the reports are in. When this desk pulled the tables on September 13, 2026, the 2024 county table returned no rows, so 2023 is the latest year the Patrol has published. The desk will add 2024 when the Patrol posts it.
Sources
- Missouri State Highway Patrol, Missouri Traffic Safety Compendium 2023, table 1.13: 2023 Missouri Crashes by County and Crash Severity.
Read the tables at the Missouri State Highway Patrol Traffic Safety Compendium on mshp.dps.missouri.gov. Tables pulled September 13, 2026. These are crashes reported into MOCARS, the statewide crash record system the compendium is built from. 2023 is the latest year the Patrol has published; its 2024 county table returned no rows on that date. The five yearly editions of table 1.13, 2019 through 2023, carry the same title with their own year. Shares, sums, differences, and per-1,000 figures are this desk's arithmetic on the published counts, not numbers the Patrol printed.
Educational only. Nothing on this page is medical advice or a diagnosis; a licensed clinician who has examined you is the person to ask. Facts about the clinic come from moinjuryclinic.com. Crash counts come from the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Emergency symptoms go to the emergency room, not to a clinic or a website.