By David Shepardson
April 1 (Reuters) – U.S. traffic deaths last year fell to the lowest number since 2019 after a sharp rise in road fatalities during the COVID pandemic.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said traffic deaths fell 6.7% to 36,640 and the fatality rate fell to 1.10 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, the second lowest in U.S. history. American road deaths jumped dramatically during the 2020 COVID pandemic and remained elevated for years.
U.S. traffic deaths jumped 10.8% in 2021 to 43,230, the most in a single year since 2005. Pedestrians and cyclists killed on American roads rose to the highest number in more than four decades.
Jonathan Morrison, who heads the U.S. auto safety agency, said the agency is “doubling down on safety strategies that reduce risky driving behaviors before they cost lives.”
This is the fourth straight year of declines. Traffic deaths fell 3.8% in 2024 to below 40,000 for the first time since 2020.
As U.S. roads became less crowded during the pandemic, some motorists perceived police as less likely to issue tickets, experts said, resulting in riskier driving. Some drivers were also more likely to drive while being impaired by alcohol or drugs consumed at home during the pandemic.
The U.S. fatality rate rose much higher than for other developed nations during the pandemic.
Congress approved $5 billion over five years as part of a $1 trillion 2021 infrastructure law to address road safety.
A 2023 NHTSA study found crashes directly cost taxpayers $30 billion, and society as a whole $340 billion. When quality-of-life valuations were included, the total cost to society ran to $1.37 trillion – equivalent to 1.6% of U.S. economic output.
(Reporting by David Shepardson, Editing by Franklin Paul and Aurora Ellis)
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