“Crisis in US Traffic Deaths Despite Minor Drop in 2022”

The number of deaths from car crashes in America last year decreased a tiny bit but there are still an alarming 42,795 people who were killed. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that the amount of fatalities went down less than 1% compared to 2021. There was also a slight drop in car crash deaths during the fourth quarter, which is three quarters with declining numbers. But even so, they remain close to 2021’s record high over the past 16 years.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said that everyone needs to help fix the traffic death problem in our country. To make this happen, his department will give out $800 million dollars to communities with a lot of car crashes.

The government puts out guesses on how many people are driving safely, but the exact numbers won’t be known until next year. Recently, they said that more people than usual were not driving carefully like by going too fast or texting while driving.

According to the collected data, there was a 12% increase of people killed in collisions that involved at least one distracted driver. This raised concerns and so the agency allocated a budget of $5 million for an advertising campaign which aims to remind drivers to give their full attention to the road. However, investigations reveal that such incidents are often not reported accurately by Police Officers.

During the year, the number of walkers who died rose by 13%, and those on bikes had a 2% increase. Unbelted passengers in cars lost their lives 8.1 % more than before, and crashes with drunk drivers went up 14%. Drivers breaking the speed limit were 7.9% higher for accidents involving large trucks weighing over 10,000 pounds were increased by 17%.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that the rate of people getting killed in car crashes decreased a little bit in 2022. That number was 1.35 people per 100 million miles traveled, which is lower than in 2021 when it was 1.37. Because the pandemic has become less dangerous, more people are driving – especially over 2021 when you add up all the miles driven, it’s almost one percent higher!