According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), fewer people have died during the first three months of the year, even though Americans are driving more miles.
In the NHTSA’s traffic fatalities projections for 2023, an estimated 9,330 people have died in traffic crashes during the first quarter of 2023, a 3.3 percent decrease over the same time last year. In 2022, America saw 9,645 traffic fatalities during its first three months. The new numbers represent the fourth straight decline in traffic fatalities following seven quarters of increases since the third quarter of 2020.
“After spiking during the pandemic, traffic deaths have been on a slow but consistent decline for the past year,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said. “This is an encouraging sign as we work to reverse the rise in roadway deaths, but there is much more work ahead to reinforce this downward trend and make it permanent.”
The decline comes in spite of a 2.6 percent increase in the number of vehicle miles traveled, the report showed. With more miles traveled, the rate of fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled dropped to 1.24, down from 1.32 during the same time in 2022.
“This is very good news, but we know that far too many people are dying on our roadways in preventable crashes,” said NHTSA Chief Counsel Ann Carlson. “We are taking significant action to reduce traffic fatalities, including moving forward on new vehicle standards to make cars even safer, investing millions of dollars to improve infrastructure and roadway safety, and working with our state and local partners to help drivers make safe decisions on the road.”
NHTSA said fatalities for the first quarter of 2023 decreased in 32 states when compared to the same time period in 2022, but increased in 18 states and Puerto Rico. The number of fatalities for the District of Columbia remained the same.