The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s latest estimates indicate traffic fatalities continued to rise at record levels through the first nine months of 2021.
According to data released Feb. 1, an estimated 31,720 people died in traffic crashes from January to September 2021, which is an increase of approximately 12 percent from the 28,325 fatalities in the first nine months of 2020. That’s reportedly the highest number of fatalities during the first nine months of any year since 2006 and the greatest increase during the first nine months in the NHTS’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System’s history.
“People make mistakes, but human mistakes don’t always have to be lethal," U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a Feb. 1 news release. "In a well-designed system, safety measures make sure that human fallibility does not lead to human fatalities. That’s what we will be doing for America’s roads with the National Roadway Safety Strategy and the safe system approach that it embraces.”
Buttigieg released a new roadway safety strategy Jan. 27, which includes plans to work with states and localities to build and maintain safer roads, updates to the manual on traffic control devices, technology uses to make cars safer for pedestrians and other motorists and a $6 billion Safe Streets and Roads for All program. Buttigieg’s plan also includes $4 billion in new funding for the Highway Safety Improvement Program.
“The Roadway Safety Action Plan is designed to focus all of DOT’s resources, authorities and incredible expertise, working with our stakeholders, to combat the tragic number of fatalities and serious injuries we see on U.S. roadways – from our largest cities and towns to rural and tribal communities all across the country,” Polly Trottenberg, deputy transportation secretary, said in the Jan. 27 release.
Buttigieg reported using the new safety strategy as a way to avoid preventable roadway deaths.
In its data, the DOT said the fatality rate for the first nine months of 2021 increased to 1.36 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, an increase of 1.35 fatalities from the same period in 2020. Fatality rates in the second and third quarters of 2021 declined compared to 2020, the DOT said.
