The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 9,330 people died in traffic accidents in the first three months of 2023. That’s a 3.3 percent decline as compared to the same period in 2022, when 9,664 people died, and the fourth straight quarter of declining fatalities.
Moreover, America’s roads were less dangerous this year than in 2022, despite drivers using them more. Americans put 2.6 percent more miles on their vehicles early in 2023, meaning that there is a rate of 1.24 fatalities per 100 million vehicles miles traveled, the NHTSA found. That’s down from a rate of 1.32 in the first three months of 2022.
“After spiking during the pandemic, traffic deaths have been on a slow but consistent decline for the past year,” said Pete Buttigieg, the U.S. transportation secretary. “This is an encouraging sign as we work to reverse the rise in roadway deaths, but there is much more work ahead to reinforce this downward trend and make it permanent.”
Read: The First Quarter Of 2022 Was The Deadliest In 20 Years On America’s Roads
As you might expect, the decline in overall fatalities mean that the majority of states saw declining deaths, too. Indeed, 32 states were safer in 2023 than a year earlier, though 18 states and Puerto Rico still saw fatalities rise.
Although declining deaths are a positive sign, they are still high in the U.S. The rate is lower in early 2023 than it was a year ago, but that was the deadliest quarter in two decades, according to NHTSA’s analysis, so there’s still work to do.
“This is very good news, but we know that far too many people are dying on our roadways in preventable crashes,” said NHTSA Chief Counsel Ann Carlson. “We are taking significant action to reduce traffic fatalities, including moving forward on new vehicle standards to make cars even safer, investing millions of dollars to improve infrastructure and roadway safety, and working with our state and local partners to help drivers make safe decisions on the road.”
