America’s fatality rate has decreased, too, over the same period but not by nearly as much, and it’s started to show signs of ticking back up in the past decade.Īnd like so many other major causes of mortality, people of color are disproportionately affected. Most of America’s peers have shown a clear downward trend in car fatalities over the past two decades: Belgium, France, Spain, and the Czech Republic all had per capita car death rates comparable to the US in 2000 and have since more than halved them. In a recent report on car fatality rates in OECD nations, the US ranked among the worst.
At least 13 people were killed when a vehicle packed with passengers, including minors, collided with the large truck. Investigators at the scene of a crash between an SUV and a semi-truck near Holtville, California, on March 2. The Covid-driven surge in car deaths shouldn’t obscure what was already a disquieting fact before the pandemic: American automotive deaths - both of pedestrians and of people in cars - are a public health emergency. Compared to 2019, many more drivers involved in fatal crashes also didn’t wear seat belts or drove drunk.īut why has the surge persisted and worsened this year, even as traffic has been picking back up and nearing pre-Covid-19 levels? We don’t entirely know, but it seems to have something to do with the pandemic altering traffic patterns. The NHTSA’s preliminary data estimate a lower but still dramatic 10.5 percent increase in car deaths between January and March 2021 compared to the same months last year.Īccording to several traffic experts I spoke with, the explanation for the 2020 fatality spike is relatively straightforward: With fewer cars on the road during quarantine, traffic congestion was all but eliminated, which emboldened people to drive at lethal speeds. If the trend continues for the rest of the year, nationwide deaths would reach the highest level since 2006.
It was the biggest single-year spike in the US car fatality rate in nearly a century, and 2021 is on pace to be even worse.īetween January and June of this year, NSC reports that car fatalities increased by 16 percent from the same period last year, with areas as diverse as Texas and New York City reporting sharp increases.
That increase occurred even as the number of miles traveled by car decreased by 13 percent from the previous year. Twice a week, we’ll send you a roundup of the best ideas and solutions for tackling the world’s biggest challenges - and how to get better at doing good. Sign up for the Future Perfect newsletter
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