Trucking news and briefs for Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022:
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released its early estimate of traffic fatalities for the first nine months of 2021, which projects that an estimated 31,720 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes from January through September 2021.
These numbers, if proven accurate, represent an increase of approximately 12% from the 28,325 fatalities projected for the first nine months of 2020. The projection is the highest number of fatalities during the first nine months of any year since 2006 and the highest-ever percentage increase during any first nine months in the Fatality Analysis Reporting System’s history.
All but one of NHTSA's 10 regions saw an increase in highway fatalities in the projected third-quarter 2021 numbers.
According to the Federal Highway Administration, vehicle miles traveled in the first nine months of 2021 increased by about 244 billion miles, an 11.7% increase from the same time in 2020, given reduced travel on account of the COVID-19 pandemic's beginning in 2020.
The fatality rate for the first nine months of 2021 increased to 1.36 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, a marginal increase from the projected rate of 1.35 fatalities in the same time in 2020. The fatality rates in the second and third quarters of 2021 declined compared to 2020.
The new estimates come days after the U.S. Department of Transportation released the federal government’s first-ever National Roadway Safety Strategy, a roadmap to address the national crisis in roadway fatalities and serious injuries.
