The COVID-19 pandemic has changed many aspects of American life, both on the road and in everyday life. Since the beginning of the pandemic in March of 2020, there has been a noticeable drop in the number of drivers and miles driven on the road, but along with that has come an increase in the percentage of traffic fatalities as it relates to number of miles driven. To say that this is an alarming turn of events is to put it lightly since one would assume that less traffic and more open roads would equate with less accidents and consequently, less fatalities. Sadly, that has not been the case.
As far back as March when the reality of the pandemic and ensuing restrictions began to take hold, there was a noticeable and concerning uptick in the number of traffic accidents and related fatalities. According to EHS Today, a magazine that focuses on the American occupational health and safety issues, the year to year increase in accidents for the month of March jumped an alarming 14% on a per driver basis, even as the number of miles driven during the same month dropped by nearly 20%.
It’s important to point out that there are less overall accidents and fatalities compared to March of 2019, but that the percentage of accidents per driver and miles driven has risen. Essentially, what this means is that there are less miles being driven in the U.S., but the proportion of accidents per miles driven has gone up drastically. There could be a number of reasons this is the case, one of which is the suggestion that less traffic and more open roads have contributed to less safe driving, causing more accidents on as a percentage of miles driven, even as there are far fewer vehicles on the road. On the whole, there has been an 8% drop in roadway fatalities, but the proportion of deaths in relation to the number of drivers has seen a rather significant increase.
Other factors may also be at play in the percentage increase of road fatalities that are tangentially related to relaxed measures during the coronavirus pandemic. For example, many of the restrictions placed on commercial truck drivers have been lifted or relaxed during the pandemic to help ease economic problems that could be caused by delays in deliveries, such as the limit on the number of hours a driver is allowed to operate. Additionally, some states have allowed new drivers that are acquiring a license for the first time to get a driver’s license prior to passing what had previously been a mandatory road test—a move that is questionable at best.
Though many of the reasons cited above are based more on anecdotal evidence rather than hard statistics which are not yet available, they do combine to paint an unsettling picture that has to, at least in some way, contribute to the rising percentage of auto fatalities on American roads. This could be part of the reason that the US Department of Transportation has been conducting an internal audit of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s policies as enforcement, as we noted in a previous blog post which you can read here.
Comments
Post a Comment