A National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) report determined nationwide traffic deaths decreased during 2019 compared to 2018, and alcohol-impaired driving fatalities decreased to the lowest percentage since 1982.
Data collected via the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) showed there were 36,096 fatalities in motor vehicle traffic crashes in 2019 – representing a decrease of 739 from the reported 36,835 fatalities in 2018, even with vehicle miles traveled (VMT) increasing by 0.8 percent.
“We are encouraged by the 2019 FARS data, which shows that fewer lives were lost on our nation’s roads than the year before, a trend for three years now even while economic growth was increasing,” NHTSA Deputy Administrator James Owens said. “We saw notable reductions in pedestrian and cyclist fatalities, as well as fewer lives lost in alcohol-impaired driving crashes. If we’re to keep building on these numbers, everyone needs to do their part by driving sober, wearing their seat belts, avoiding speeding and distractions, and sharing the road with pedestrians and cyclists.”
Additionally, the NHTSA issued a supplementary report representing the first half of 2020 focusing on monthly traffic fatalities and fatality rates by various subcategories such as age, land use, and roadway function class, as compared to 2019.
The supplementary breakdown revealed that while the number of traffic fatalities during April to June 2020 were projected to decrease, there is a projected rise in the proportion of fatalities occurring in rural areas, among younger people 16 to 24 years old, with risky drivers, in rollovers and ejections and among occupants of older vehicles.