Roadway deaths ‘persist at egregiously high levels’ in 2022

Every day, an average of 6,250 people are injured on American roadways and 115 are killed in traffic accidents. Last year, nearly 43,000 people were killed in motor vehicle accidents—a more than 10 percent increase from the previous year.

Data from the first six months of 2022 shows that “deaths persist at egregiously high levels,” according to the Advocates for Highway & Auto Safety’s annual 2023 “Roadmap to Safety” report. It’s a tragic statistic that advocates say could be reduced. 

“By any measure, this is a major public health problem,” the report continues, citing a public opinion survey in which “two-thirds of respondents said that not enough is being done to reduce dangerous driving behaviors. In 2019, the U.S. had the highest motor vehicle crash death rate (11.1 per 100,000 population) among 29 high-income countries.”

Domestically, in a ranking of all states and Washington, D.C., Washington, D.C., Maryland, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Louisiana were the only states given a “green” rating, “showing significant advancement toward adopting all of Advocates’ recommended optimal laws,” the report says. Those recommendations—which some states haven’t enacted—include legislation like a primary enforcement seatbelt law for front and rear seat passengers, an all-rider motorcycle helmet law, a booster seat law, text message restriction, and legislation that permits automated enforcement like traffic cameras.

Traffic cameras are highlighted in the report as an effective means of reducing speed: “A 2020 review by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) found that speed camera programs are effective in reducing speeding and/or crashes near cameras,” the report says. “Speed cameras alone resulted in a 19% reduction in the likelihood that a crash resulted in a fatal or incapacitating injury.”

Technology has historically played an important role in reducing traffic deaths. Over the last 50 years, safety innovations like the seatbelt, which was first brought to America in 1949 by the now-defunct car manufacturer Nash Motors, have saved hundreds of thousands of lives. But they only work if people wear them.

“In fatal crashes in 2020, 82 percent of passenger vehicle occupants who were totally ejected from the vehicle were killed,” the report says. “Only one percent of the occupants reported to have been using restraints were totally ejected, compared with 26 percent of the unrestrained occupants.”

Beyond the terrible physical cost, “crashes injure millions of people each year and impose a comprehensive cost on society of more than one trillion dollars,” the report continues, estimating that crashes cost every taxpayer $950 annually. 

“For too long, we have accepted preventable traffic deaths as inevitable, prioritized speed over safety, and focused solely on moving cars quickly,” said Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), chair of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Highways and Transit. “Traffic fatalities have increased 19 percent since before the pandemic. Deaths among people walking and biking have increased by 62 percent in the last decade. And crashes continue to be a leading cause of death for our children and teens.”

The successful passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is, in the long term, expected to help administrators build a “safer, cleaner and more equitable transportation system,” Holmes Norton said. The legislation has given lawmakers a historic opportunity to advance safety improvements like automatic emergency braking and impaired driving prevention systems, which the report says should be made mandatory on all new vehicles. 

Looking to the future, the highway safety analysis notes that other technological advancements like autonomous vehicles have the potential to make roadways safer, but there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done: “The lack of federal performance standards, strong government oversight, adequate consumer information, comprehensive data collection, and effective industry accountability could very well sink this possibility,” the report says. “In the absence of safeguards, all road users are unknowing and unwitting participants in the testing of experimental autonomous driving technology on public roadways and are imperiled.”

The 2021 roadway survey, which was commissioned by the roadway advocacy organization and carried out by ENGINE INSIGHTS, found that 80 percent of respondents said they were concerned about sharing the road with driverless cars. Of those, 60 percent said that if companies had to meet minimum government safety requirements, it would address their concerns. 

To that end, the report calls for a threefold approach to reduce traffic deaths: first, by making vehicles safer; by updating traffic safety laws; and finally, by improving roadway infrastructure. Lane departure warning and blind spot detection technology, for example, has been proven to be an effective way to make cars safer.

“Roadway safety impacts everyone every day.  At the very worst case, it has needlessly killed or permanently injured people and has forever changed the lives of loved ones,” said Jeffrey Glover, chief of the Tempe, Ariz. police department in a statement.