Big increase in traffic fatalities on Illinois roads in ’20
Officials: Pandemic may have opened door for speeding
Nearly 160 more people died on Illinois roads last year than in 2019, making 2020 the deadliest year for Illinois drivers in 13 years, a surge officials say may have been fed by drivers speeding on roads left open by motorists who stayed home because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
About 1,166 people died in motor vehicle crashes in Illinois in 2020, a nearly 16% increase over 2019, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation. That’s a provisional number, said IDOT spokesperson Guy Tridgell, since it takes the state agency 12-18 months to finalize annual data.
Illinois traffic fatalities haven’t been that high since 2007, when 1,248 people died, according to recent and historic state data. Deaths include drivers, passengers, pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.
State officials point to speeding and other risky driving behaviors, prompted by emptier-thannormal roads as states like Illinois issued coronavirus lockdown orders, as possibly feeding the jump in deaths.
“We do know anecdotally from law enforcement that speeding and reckless driving likely increased with deadly consequences during the pandemic, in Illinois and throughout the country,” state transportation spokesperson Maria Castaneda said in an email.
“In general, when there is less traffic, there is a temptation to exceed the posted speed limit,” Illinois State Police spokesperson Delila Garcia said in an email. “The Illinois State Police is asking the motoring public to fight the temptation. Slow down and pay attention to the road.”
Still, with fewer people on the roads, state police actually recorded fewer speeding tickets than normal in 2020, down to about 80,000 from totals above 100,000 in the two years prior, according to Garcia.
Speeding and traffic fatalities typically go down during recessions, according to an October study published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In Illinois, for example, deaths dipped sharply in 2008 and 2009 according to state data, though they’ve been up slightly since.
In Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced recently that the city would begin using automated cameras in “safety zones” near schools and parks to issue speeding tickets for drivers at a new, lower threshold, cracking down on drivers going 6 mph or more over the speed limit.
City officials said the change was a response to the 2020 jump in city traffic deaths, which were up 45% to 139 fatalities in preliminary Chicago Police Department data, according to a news release from the mayor’s office. Chicago police couldn’t confirm those numbers, said spokesperson Jessica Rocco in an email. The mayor’s office directed a request for comment to the city’s Transportation Department, which did not immediately make someone available for comment.
Illinois is far from the only state that experienced a pandemic uptick in traffic deaths last year, according to the traffic safety administration, which in December published projections regarding traffic fatalities for the first nine months of 2020. A spokesperson directed a request for comment to an earlier news release.
Even though Americans were estimated to have traveled 355.5 billion fewer miles than normal in that period, down nearly 15% compared with the first nine months of 2019, more people died.
About 28,190 people died in crashes from January to September 2020, more than a thousand more fatalities than in the same period in 2019, the federal agency estimated. A full annual report is expected to be released in the late fall.
More of those killed were men, people aged 18-34 and those living in rural areas, according to the agency, as older people, who are generally more risk-averse, stayed home during the pandemic. Fewer seriously and fatally injured people were wearing seat belts, and more were testing positive for alcohol and drugs — although positivity doesn’t always mean impairment — according to a summary of recent studies the agency published in January.
What’s more, traffic deaths nationally were down from March to May, but jumped back up after states began reopening in June, according to the agency’s estimates.
That’s something that worries Catherine Chase, president of the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit group Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety.
“I’m especially concerned that as more and more people go back on the roadways, that these patterns and behaviors don’t subside and people continue to speed, continue not to wear their seat belts, drive impaired — but there will be more people on the roads,” Chase said.
On the federal level, she advocated for action to make manufacturers include in their vehicles by default alcohol detection and crash avoidance technologies, like alcohol sensors, collision warnings, lane departure warnings, automatic braking, blind spot detection and rearview cameras.
Smarter design could also help, said Maureen Vogel, spokesperson for the National Safety Council, an advocacy group. Narrower lanes, bike lanes, pedestrian walkways and road medians could keep cars going more slowly and protect people who bike and walk, she said.
“2020 just underscored the need to really get back to the basics of driving, and to remember that … every death on the roadways is preventable,” Vogel said. “We just have to take the right steps, both as drivers and in our leadership ranks, to make sure that we’re protecting everybody on the roads.”