Traffic fatalities drop

According to the latest numbers from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 31,785 people were killed in motor vehicle crashes from January through September 2022. That is a 0.2% drop in traffic fatalities compared with the first nine months of 2021.

The third quarter of 2022 also marks the second straight decline in traffic fatalities after seven consecutive quarters of year-to-year increases.

A decrease in traffic fatalities comes despite an increase in vehicle miles traveled.

Vehicle miles traveled increased by 1.6% in the first nine months of last year. The fatality rate per 100 million miles traveled decreased from 1.32 to 1.30.

Despite the overall decrease in traffic fatalities, half of the regions in the nation experienced an increase or no change in traffic deaths. The largest increase was found in Region 1 (Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont) at 5%. The largest decrease in traffic fatalities was found in Region 6 (Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas), with a 5% drop.

Adjusting by fatality rate per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, Region 1 has the lowest rate at 0.85. Region 6 has the highest rate at 1.54.

In half of the states, there was an increase in traffic fatalities. As a change in percentage, Hawaii experienced the largest increase at 42.2%. The largest decrease was in South Dakota, with a 28.1% drop in traffic deaths. Rhode Island had the lowest fatality rate at 0.64. South Carolina had the highest fatality rate at 1.78.

In its report, NHTSA pointed out that during the COVID-19 pandemic there were significant increases in traffic fatalities and the fatality rate per 100 million vehicle miles traveled in 2020. However, the trend has been up and down since then.

“The increased trend of the fatality rate per 100 million (vehicle miles traveled) in 2020 has continued into the first quarter of 2021, decreased in the second, third and fourth quarters of 2021, and increased again in the first quarter but decreased in the second and the third quarter of 2022,” NHTSA stated in its report.

According to NHTSA, these estimates may be further refined when projections for all of 2022 are released in late April. Preliminary data does not indicate crashes by vehicle type.

Cost to society

NHTSA’s report titled “The Economic and Societal Impact of Motor Vehicle Crashes, 2019” puts a dollar amount on the motor vehicle crashes that killed 36,500 people, injured 4.5 million, and damaged 23 million vehicles. According to the report, the cost to American society is $340 billion.

That is equivalent to about $1,035 for every person living in the United States and 1.6% of the U.S. gross domestic product.

According to the report, those costs include medical care, lost productivity, legal and court costs, insurance administrative costs, workplace costs, congestion impacts (travel delay, excess fuel consumption and pollution), and property damage.

In cases of serious injury or death, the value of lost quality of life sends the price soaring.

When quality-of-life valuations are considered, the total value of societal harm from motor vehicle crashes in 2019 was $1.37 trillion.

The lifetime economic cost to society for each fatality is $1.6 million. Over 90% of that amount is attributable to lost workplace and household productivity and legal costs, according to the report. Accounting for quality of life, that amount climbs to $11.3 million for each fatality.

Each critically injured survivor cost an average of $979,000. Medical costs and lost productivity account for 81% of the cost for this most serious level of nonfatal injury. Accounting for quality of life, critically injured survivors cost $6 million each.

Alcohol-involved crashes resulted in $348 billion in comprehensive costs in 2019, accounting for 26% of all societal harm from motor vehicle crashes. Although intoxicated drivers may experience impaired judgment, perceptions, and reaction times, not all crashes in which alcohol was present were caused by alcohol. Crashes in which alcohol was the cause resulted in $287 billion in societal harm in 2019. This represents 21% of all societal harm from motor vehicle crashes. Ninety-four percent of societal harm from crashes caused by alcohol occurred in crashes where drivers had blood alcohol content ratings of 0.08 or greater.

Motor vehicle crashes in which at least one driver was exceeding the legal speed limit or driving too fast for conditions caused $225 billion in comprehensive costs or 16% of all societal harm from crashes.

Crashes in which at least one driver was identified as being distracted resulted in 10,546 fatalities, 1.3 million nonfatal injuries and damaged 5.6 million vehicles in property-damage-only crashes in 2019. These crashes cost $98.2 billion in 2019. This represents about 29% of all motor vehicle crashes and crash costs.

Failure to wear a seat belt caused 2,400 avoidable fatalities and 46,000 serious injuries. It also cost society $11 billion in preventable injury-related costs, accounting for about 3% of all crash costs. From 1975 to 2019, seat belt use saved 404,000 lives, which prevented $17.8 trillion in societal harm.

Approximately 9% of all motor vehicle crash costs are paid from public revenues. Federal revenues accounted for 5%, and states and localities paid for approximately 3%. An additional 1% is from programs that are heavily subsidized by public revenues but for which the exact source could not be determined. Private insurers pay approximately 54% of all costs. LL