U.S. traffic deaths surge at record pace
WASHINGTON — The number of U.S. traffic deaths surged in the first nine months of 2021 to 31,720, the government reported last week, keeping up a record pace of increased dangerous driving during the coronavirus pandemic.
The estimated figure of people dying in motor vehicle crashes from January to September 2021 was 12% higher than the same period in 2020. That represents the highest percentage increase over a nine-month period since the Transportation Department began recording fatal crash data in 1975.
The tally of 31,720 deaths was the highest nine-month figure since 2006.
Federal data from the department’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration showed that traffic fatalities increased during the nine-month period in 38 states, led by those in the West and South such as Idaho, Nevada and Texas, and was flat in two states.
The NHTSA report estimated an 18.4% increase in Illinois fatalities in the first nine months of 2021 over 2020, going from 839 to 993. The numbers declined in 10 states and the District of Columbia.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has pledged help and released a new national strategy last month aimed at reversing the trend, which he calls a crisis. He told The Associated Press that his department over the next two years will provide federal guidance as well as billions in grants under President Joe Biden’s new infrastructure law to spur states and localities to lower speed limits and embrace safer road design such as dedicated bike and bus lanes, better lighting and crosswalks. The strategy also urges the use of speed cameras, which the department says could provide more equitable enforcement than police traffic stops.