Car crashes are killing more and more Americans since the start of the COVID pandemic, even though the volume of traffic has not risen above pre-pandemic levels. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced last week that deaths from car crashes in the first few months of 2022 hit the highest quarterly total since 2002.
Traffic deaths were up by 7 percent compared to the first quarter of last year. Auto deaths were already at a 15-year high in 2021 which is a reversal from the pre-pandemic trend. Deaths from car crashes in the United States declined for three years leading up to 2020, according to NBC News.
According to federal data, the number of deaths began to increase even though people drove less in 2020. Data showed that 2021 traffic volume was relatively the same as in 2019. The 2022 traffic deaths represent a 22 percent jump compared to the first quarter of 2019.
Riskier driving seen since pandemic started
Arthur Goodwin, who is a senior research associate at the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center, said that they hoped that was just some unusual blip due to the COVID pandemic, but fatalities have continued to increase.
Goodwin and other road safety experts attributed the increase in car crashes to riskier driving, saying that fewer people wear seat belts and that there has been a rise in speeding and impaired driving.
According to David Harkey, the president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, risky driving behaviors were exacerbated during the COVID pandemic. He added that these behaviors seem to have this hangover effect that is now occurring.
Three Indiana State University students died in a violent crash on Sunday after a car veered off the road and into a tree. Six people, including a pregnant woman and a 3-year-old kid, were also killed this month in a multivehicle crash in the city of Los Angeles. According to Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, one of the vehicles ran a red light at more than 90 miles per hour.
Seven people, including five kids, also died a few days earlier in a fiery collision in Hampshire, Illinois. Representative Jackie Walorski, R-Ind., and Hollywood actress Anne Heche also died in car crashes this month.
What are the key factors behind rise in car crashes?
A survey from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety back in 2020 found that people who drove more than usual during the COVID pandemic were more likely to engage in riskier behaviors, including, speeding, running red lights on purpose, reading text messages, not wearing seat belts or driving after having consumed alcohol or cannabis, and aggressively changing lanes.
Deaths from crashes due to speeding increased by 17 percent in 2020 compared to 2019. Deaths because of alcohol-impaired driving increased by 14 percent during that same period. Experts said open highways during the COVID pandemic may have tempted drivers to go faster.
