Despite a downturn in vehicle crashes and injuries from the previous year, the occurrence of fatal crashes increased in 2020, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which just released its annual traffic crash data.
There were 38,824 lives lost in 2020 crashes, the most road fatalities since 2007. This was in spite of the fact that total vehicle miles driven decreased by 11% in 2020 from the previous year (from 3,261,772 million to 2,903,622 million). In nearly half of these deadly accidents, speeding, alcohol, or failure to wear a safety belt played a major role.
“The rising fatalities on our roadways are a national crisis; we cannot and must not accept these deaths as inevitable,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “People should leave the house and know they’re going to get to their destination safely, and with the resources from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, plus the policies in the National Roadway Safety Strategy we launched last month, we will do everything we can to save lives on America’s roads.”
Dr. Steven Cliff, NHTSA’s Deputy Administrator added, “The tragic loss of life of people represented by these numbers confirms that we have a deadly crisis on our nation’s roads…We cannot allow this to become the status quo.”
Just after the new year, the U.S. Department of Transportation issued the federal government’s wide-ranging National Roadway Safety Strategy. Included in the plan are specific measures poised to take on the national epidemic of traffic fatalities and serious injuries. This new policy implements a safe system method, taking a multi-layer protective approach including safer roads, safer people, safer vehicles, safer speeds, and improved care following a crash. The strategy is further strengthened by designated funding for safety as part of President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
The 2020 crash data report breaks out fatality data in many significant categories, as compared to 2019:
- Injured people, including occupants and non-occupants, down significantly in most categories
- Estimated number of police-reported crashes in 2020 decreased by 22%
- Fatalities in speeding-related crashes up 17%
- Fatalities in alcohol-impaired driving crashes up 14%
- Unrestrained passenger vehicle occupant fatalities up 14%
- Motorcyclist fatalities up 11% (highest number since first data collection in 1975)
- Bicyclist fatalities up 9.2% (highest number since 1987)
- Passenger car occupant fatalities up 9%
- Fatalities in urban areas up 8.5%
- Pedestrian fatalities up 3.9% (highest number since 1989)
- Fatalities in hit-and-run crashes up 26%
- Fatalities in large-truck crashes down 1.3%
