Car Crashes Down In 2020, But Fatalities Reach Highest Number Since 2007

With COVID-19 taking over the world in 2020, we definitely saw less people traveling the roads in this country. However, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released its 2020 annual traffic crash data, which showed that 38,824 lives were lost in traffic crashes nationwide. This number marks the highest number of fatalities since 2007.

Car Crashes Down In 2020

While we saw the highest number of traffic fatalities since 2007, we also saw the estimated number of police-reported crashes in 2020 decrease by 22% as compared to 2019. Also, the estimated number of people injured in car crashes declined by 17%.

Fatalities Are Up

Despite car crash numbers going down, the number of fatalities has gone up. The number of fatal crashes increased by 6.8% in 2020. The NHTSA stated the fatality rate per 100 million vehicle miles traveled increased to 1.34, which is a 21% increase from 2019 and the highest since 2007.

The reason for the increase in fatal crashes? The NHTSA said in 45% of the fatal crashes, the drivers of the passenger vehicles were engaged in at least one of the following risky behaviors:

• Speeding
• Alcohol Impairment
• Not wearing a seat belt

2020 Crash Data Key Categories

With the 2020 crash data report available, the NHTSA examined fatality data in key categories, as compared to 2019:

• Injured people, including occupants and non-occupants, down significantly in most categories
• 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%
• Total vehicle miles traveled decreased by 11% in 2020, from 3,261,772 million to 2,903,622 million

Get To Your Destination Safely

With the new data being released, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said, "The rising fatalities on our roadways are a national crisis; we cannot and must not accept these deaths as inevitable. 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. While overall traffic crashes and people injured were down in 2020, fatal crashes and fatalities increased. We cannot allow this to become the status quo.”

Addressing The Issues

To help address these issues and continue to focus on the safety of drivers, the U.S. Department of Transportation released the federal government's comprehensive National Roadway Safety Strategy back in January. This is a roadmap to address the national crisis in traffic fatalities and serious injuries. For this strategy, the DOT plans to adopt the safe system approach, which will build layers of protection with safer roads, safer people, safer vehicles, safer speeds and better post-crash care. All of this is complemented by the unprecedented safety funding that was included in President Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to our friendly support staff. If you want to start your driver's training journey with Coastline Academy, make sure to sign up for Drivers Ed and book your driving lesson today.