About 19,515 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes in 2023, a decrease of about 3.3% compared ... [+]
Traffic fatalities declined for the fifth straight quarter. About 19,515 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes in 2023, a decrease of about 3.3% compared to 20,190 fatalities in the first half of 2022.
The number of deaths dropped in 29 states, while 21 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia, are projected to have experienced increases.
Those are the highlights of estimates released on Thursday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for the first half of the year.
“ After spiking during the pandemic, traffic deaths are continuing to slowly come down—but we still have a long way to go,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement. “Safety has always been the core mission of this Department, and thanks to President Biden, we are delivering unprecedented resources to communities across the country to make their streets safer.”
Preliminary data indicated that in the first half of 2023, more miles were driven but there were fewer traffic deaths compared to the same period last year.
The federal agency is addressing traffic safety through a variety of initiatives that include:
- new rulemakings for lifesaving vehicle technologies that require automatic emergency braking systems in passenger cars, light trucks and heavy vehicles, that will incorporate pedestrian protections, and seat belt warning systems;
- increased Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding for state highway safety offices that includes support for programs to address risky driving behaviors;
- a Standing General Order to collect more data about crashes that occur when automated driving systems and advanced driver assistance systems are engaged; and
- the launch of the Call to Action campaign, the next phase of the National Roadway Safety Strategy, a road map for addressing the country’s death toll introduced in 2022 that embraces the Vision Zero or Safe System approach to road safety and design that takes human error into account, first put into effect in Sweden in the 1990s.
The goal of the initiative is to eliminate all road deaths and serious injuries by creating multiple layers of protection, so if one fails, the others will create a safety net to lessen the impact of a crash. Improvements are designed to result in: safer people, safer roads, safer vehicles, safer speeds and better post-crash care.
“This recent trend toward fewer deaths on our nation’s roads is welcome news,” Jonathan Adkins, chief executive officer of the Governors Highway Safety Association, said in a statement,” but these decreases pale in comparison to the troubling and unprecedented rise in dangerous driving and fatalities experienced during the height of the pandemic.”
The estimated 19,515 roadway deaths in the first half of 2023 “remain far above the 17,025 fatalities during the same period in 2019,” Adkins added. “We cannot let this gradual progress in roadway safety lessen the urgency of the safety crisis and the need for further action.”
Cathy Chase, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety agreed that there is no room for complacency.
“These horrific statistics should serve as a wake-up call to our Nation’s leaders,” she said in a statement. “With each passing week the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) delays completing the vehicle safety rulemakings mandated in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA, Pub. L. 117-58) and other overdue statutorily mandated advances, road users inside and outside the vehicle are being violently killed and injured. We urge U.S. DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg to issue minimum performance standards for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) such as automatic emergency braking (AEB), lane departure warning (LDW) and lane keeping assist (LKA) along with impaired driving prevention technology and other lifesaving safety systems immediately.”
In addition, Chased added, “we also prevail on state and federal legislators and policy makers to use Advocates’ annual Roadmap to Safety as a guidebook for needed improvements and verified measures that can be taken now.”
For more information about the recent fatality estimates, click here.
