Traffic fatalities in 2023 drop from pandemic highs

Traffic fatalities lessened by 3.6% from 2022 to 2023, according to a preliminary estimate released by the NHTSA on Monday. The number of traffic fatalities was 40,990, which is down more than 5% since the 2021 peak during the pandemic. 

The decrease comes as more total miles were drive on America roadways in 2023, yet the preliminary numbers for 2023 are still nearly 2,000 deaths higher than before the pandemic. During the pandemic, vehicle miles traveled (VMT) dropped precipitously, but those people driving on less crowded roadways were driving faster and more recklessly, data found at the time. Pedestrian deaths suffered the biggest annual increase and contributing factor to the spike. Crashes in cities and multi-vehicle crashes led the vehicular-only spike in 2021. 

The trends in the data are less clear so far for 2023. NHTSA pulls data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), a nationwide census of crash data supplied by all policing agencies, and will continued to analyze data early into 2025 to better understand the data for the 2023 model year. By the numbers, the amount of miles traveled increased 67.5 billion miles in 2023 from 2022, or a 2.1% increase, while the total fatalities dropped from 42,515 deaths in 2022 to 40,990 in 2023. 

So the number of fatalities per 100 million VMT dropped from 1.33 to 1.26 from 2022 to 2023.

Despite the reversing trend, the NHTSA cited distracted driving as a trouble spot.

“Distracted driving is extremely dangerous,” NHTSA Deputy Administrator Sophie Shulman said in a statement. “Distraction comes in many forms, but it is also preventable.”

In a separate report and subsequent public service campaign, the NHTSA reported that 11% of all police-reported traffic crashes were attributable to distracted driving, and that 8% of fatal crashes. It’s hard to quantify the number of crashes related to distracted driving, which includes everything from playing with a touchscreen or a phone to talking to passengers, so that number is likely underreported.

Pedestrians and cyclists were especially susceptible to being a victim of a crash by a distracted driver. In 2022, the last year with complete data, the NHTSA attributed 621 pedestrian and cyclist deaths to distracted drivers. 

The cost of crashes to the American economy was estimated to be $340 billion, or an extra $1,035 cost borne annually by each adult in America.