Us traffic deaths hit 20-year high in first quarter of 2022

The federal transportation officials announced Wednesday that the U.S. traffic deaths jumped in early 2022 to hit a 20 year high.

More than 9,500 people were killed in traffic accidents in the first three months of the year, according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The figure represents the highest number of first-quarter deaths since 2002, according to the NHTSA.

The death toll increased by about 7% compared to the 8,935 deaths for the same quarter in 2021, according to the death toll.

Traffic deaths in 19 states and Puerto Rico fell during the first quarter of 2022, the NHTSA said.

The numbers are still moving in the wrong direction. NHTSA Administrator Steven Cliff said now is the time for all states to double down on traffic safety.

The findings come just months after the NHTSA released its estimate of traffic fatalities for 2021, projecting the highest number of fatalities since 2005 and the largest annual percentage increase in the Fatality Analysis Reporting System s history.

The NHTSA projected that 42,915 people died in motor vehicle crashes last year, a 10.5% increase from 38,824 deaths in 2020.

In October, a preliminary NHTSA report showed the rise in traffic deaths, prompting the Department of Transportation to announce a number of initiatives to curb the trend.

The administration said in a release announcing the 2021 figure back in May, each of these numbers has a life tragically lost, and a family left behind.

The deaths were a crisis on America's roadways that we must address together, according to U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Public health experts have suggested that the sudden rise in deaths on the road appeared to be linked to the Covid 19 pandemic, which left millions of people feeling isolated and stressed out in the U.S.

While there is no one causal factor, reckless behavior is likely the confluence of increased drug and alcohol use, lack of safety constraints like seat belts and texting, and greater opportunities for speeding and reckless driving, which is linked to feelings of liberation, Karl Minges, interim dean at the University of New Haven's School of Health Sciences, said last October.