Texas led the nation in young-driver crash deaths in 2024, federal report finds

Texas had more deaths in crashes involving young drivers than any other state in 2024, a federal report released in July 2026 found, a figure that sits behind the buckle-up and phone-down reminders directed at Cooke County's summer drivers.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report, published in July 2026 and drawn from 2024 numbers, counted 644 deaths in Texas crashes that involved a young driver, the highest total of any state. Those deaths made up 15.5% of all traffic fatalities in Texas, and 253 young drivers were among the people killed in the state's crashes.

NHTSA counts young drivers as people ages 15 to 20. Nationally, that group held 5.2% of licenses but accounted for 9% of drivers in fatal crashes in 2024, the report said, with 2,162 young drivers killed and about 184,129 injured across the country.

The summer timing has its own federal backing. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, another U.S. Department of Transportation agency, treats the stretch from Memorial Day to Labor Day as a higher-risk season, when teen-driver crashes and deaths tend to climb. It ties the rise to fuller roads, congestion, more inexperienced drivers, distraction, speeding and impaired driving, though its warning is national and includes no traffic count for the Texoma area.

The Texas Department of Public Safety put a similar emphasis on the July 4 holiday. The agency said it would run additional patrols from July 2 through July 5 and asked every driver, not teens alone, to belt all passengers and clear away mobile-device distractions.

For teenagers behind the wheel, the NHTSA report spelled out its own checklist: buckle up on every trip, make sure passengers do the same, stow phones and other devices while driving, and learn the graduated-license rules that apply where they live.

Those rules change from one side of the Red River to the other. Texas holds that provisional-license drivers under 18 may generally carry only one nonfamily passenger under 21, may not drive between midnight and 5 a.m. outside of work, school or emergencies, and may not use wireless communication devices at all, hands-free included. Oklahoma's intermediate license generally permits driving from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. and limits the car to one passenger or household members unless a licensed adult 21 or older rides up front.

Distraction turns up in the federal data. A NHTSA sheet issued in April 2026 recorded 241 distracted teen drivers in fatal crashes in 2024 and 264 deaths in crashes involving a distracted teen driver. Teenagers accounted for 47% of the people killed in those crashes.