Florida - Wednesday June 21, 2023: The number and rate of U.S. traffic fatalities surged in 2020 and 2021 and decreased slightly in 2022 from the previous year, but remained at a high level as vehicle travel returned to near pre-pandemic levels.
A report release Wednesday by TRIP, a national transportation research nonprofit, documents the increase in the number and rate of traffic fatalities from 2019 to 2022 at the national and state levels, examines causes for this increase, calculates the cost of fatal and serious traffic crashes, and prescribes a broad, comprehensive approach to reducing traffic fatalities in the U.S.
The report is entitled Addressing America’s Traffic Safety Crisis: Examining the Causes of Increasing U.S. Traffic Fatalities and Identifying Solutions to Improve Road User Safety.
In April 2020, as most activity was curtailed in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19, U.S. vehicle miles of travel (VMT) was 40 percent lower than April 2019. By the end of 2020, overall U.S. VMT was 11 percent lower than in 2019. Vehicle travel rebounded to four percent below pre-pandemic levels in 2021, and in 2022 rose to one percent below 2019’s pre-pandemic levels.
However, from 2019 to 2022, while vehicle travel decreased and then began to rebound, the number of traffic fatalities and the rate of traffic fatalities per 100 million VMT soared and has remained significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels. The number of U.S. traffic fatalities increased 19 percent from 2019 to 2022, from 36,096 to 42,795, and the nation’s fatality rate per 100 million VMT increased 22 percent during that time, from 1.11 to 1.35.
In Florida, from 2019 to 2022, the number of traffic fatalities increased 15 percent and the fatality rate per 100 million VMT increased nine percent, while vehicle travel increased by six percent. Data for all states can be found in the Appendix.
Bicyclist and pedestrian fatalities, which accounted for 20 percent of all U.S. traffic fatalities in 2022, increased 19 percent from 2019 to 2022. From 2019 to 2022, the number of pedestrians killed increased 18 percent (from 6,205 to 7,345) and the number of bicyclists killed increased 26 percent (from 846 to 1,068).
U.S. motorcyclist fatalities increased by 20 percent from 2019 to 2022, from 5,015 to 6,000. This coincides with the rise in the share of motorcyclists who reported not wearing helmets, which increased from 17 percent to 29 percent from 2019 to 2021. While motorcycle travel accounted for 0.6 percent of annual VMT in 2021, motorcyclists represented 14 percent of traffic fatalities.
Traffic result in a significant economic burden. According to a 2023 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) report, the tangible economic costs of traffic crashes include medical care, lost productivity, legal and court costs, insurance administrative costs, workplace costs, congestion impacts (travel delay, excess fuel consumption and pollution), emergency services, and property damage. NHTSA has also estimated the annual value of the lost quality-of-life cost of traffic crashes causing serious injury or death. The lost quality-of-life costs include the loss of remaining lifespan, extended or lifelong physical impairment, or physical pain.
Based on NHTSA’s traffic crash cost methodology, TRIP estimates that fatal and serious traffic crashes in Florida in 2022 caused a total of $107 billion in the value of societal harm, which includes $27 billion in economic costs and $80 billion in quality-of-life costs.