Be careful out there.
More Americans died in traffic accidents in the first nine months of 2021 than in the first nine months of any year since 2006. Automotive safety technology keeps advancing. But it can’t catch up with our ability to kill ourselves behind the wheel.
The record beats a 1-year-old record. Road deaths began spiking during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. But 2021’s numbers are 12% higher than 2020’s – the worst 9-month spike since the U.S. Department of Transportation began keeping records in 1970.
The level of danger isn’t higher everywhere. Thirty-eight states saw an increase. Increases were concentrated in the West and South. Idaho led all states, with a 36.4% increase in traffic deaths. Ten states and the District of Columbia saw their highways get safer. Nebraska drivers were 18.4% less likely to die on the roads than last year. Wisconsin and Mississippi saw no change.
The federal Transportation Department plans a safety push to address the problem, aimed at correcting unsafe intersections, improving lighting, building crosswalks, and encouraging states to create dedicated bike lanes to minimize bike-car collisions.
“People make mistakes,” said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. But, “in a well-designed system, safety measures make sure that human fallibility does not lead to human fatalities.”
Jonathan Adkins, executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association, supported the plan, saying, “we’ve got to look at how we build roads. We’ve got to look at the whole system.”
Individual car owners, of course, can improve their own odds by paying attention to safety features when car shopping.
Related: Car Safety Features 101 – Everything You Need to Know
