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It is a disturbing story that simply retains getting worse. U.S. visitors fatalities have continued to climb — a trajectory that started two years in the past because the nation emerged from pandemic lockdowns. However whereas Covid’s dying charges have fallen, dying charges from vehicles have solely gone up.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Wednesday mentioned that traffic deaths rose another 7% in the first quarter of 2022, to an estimated 9,560 people. That is the deadliest three-month span in twenty years. The 7% improve is in comparison with the identical interval final yr, through which 8,935 died.
A major wrongdoer for this grim toll is solely miles pushed: Individuals drove 40 billion extra miles in Q1 2022 than they did in Q1 2021, up 5.6%.
But calculating deaths per 100 million miles pushed additionally reveals a rise, rising from 1.25 deaths to 1.27.
Earlier than 2020, visitors deaths had been in decline for 3 consecutive years. However ever since, and along with the rise in miles pushed, consultants blame a rise in speeding, together with reckless and impaired driving. Final yr, traffic deaths surged 10.5%, for a total of 42,915 Americans killed. That was the very best annual toll in 16 years — and the biggest share improve since NHTSA started monitoring dying information again in 1975.
The federal government has pledged to fund investments in velocity enforcement and to construct safer roads. In Might, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg designated $5 billion from the Biden administration’s infrastructure package deal for cities to implement the DOT’s National Roadway Safety Strategy to reverse the lethal pattern.
“The general numbers are nonetheless shifting within the mistaken path,” NHTSA Administrator Steven Cliff mentioned in a ready assertion. “Now could be the time for all states to double down on visitors security.”
NHTSA is operating a sequence of advertisements urging people to slow down and not to drive drunk or otherwise impaired (movies above and beneath). Anticipate an elevated enforcement effort nationwide for the upcoming Labor Day weekend.
The company’s numbers for the quarter, and for final yr, are estimates, however they often are near the ultimate tally. The ultimate numbers for 2021 shall be launched this fall.
Cliff, who was confirmed by the Senate to run NHTSA simply three months in the past, is leaving the company subsequent month to run the California Air Sources Board, which regulates air pollution. Chief Counsel Ann Carlson will run the company till a brand new administrator is nominated.
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