Driving has become a more dangerous activity this year, according to preliminary estimates from the National Safety Council that found an estimated 20% increase in the motor vehicle death rate between January and June. This represents the highest motor vehicle death rate for a six-month period since 1999.
Ironically, the increase in vehicular fatalities coincided with a 17% decline in the number of miles driven by Americans between January and June.
The National Safety Council estimated the total number of motor vehicle deaths in the first six months of the year was 18,300, up 1% from the preliminary 2019 estimate of 18,200. The estimated mileage death rate for the first six months is 1.37 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, up 20% from the revised 2019 rate of 1.14 deaths.
During June, when many states ended three straight months of quarantine, the number of miles driven remained 13% lower than the previous year, but the number of deaths was up 17% while the rate of death per 100 million miles driven soared by 34.4%.
“Because of Covid-19 and states’ shelter-in-place orders earlier this year, the country should have reaped a safety benefit from less traffic,” said Lorraine M. Martin, president and CEO of the National Safety Council. “Instead, our soaring rate of deaths speaks to our need to improve safety on our roads. Clearly, we must work harder as a society to reverse this trend, especially since the pandemic is not nearly over.”
This is interesting, Phil. I’d be interested in why the increase in fatalities when the number of driven miles during that same period? Was there any speculation as to the cause? Sad stats indeed.