The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently released early estimates for traffic fatalities in the first quarter of the 2022 calendar year. According to the NHTSA, traffic fatalities increased 7 percent in Q1 of 2022 compared to Q1 of 2021, marking the highest number of first-quarter fatalities since 2002.
Per the federal agency, early estimates put traffic fatalities for Q1 of 2022 at 9,560, as compared to 8,935 fatalities projected for Q1 of 2021. The fatality rate for Q1 of 2022 was calculated at 1.27 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, an increase compared to the projected rate of 1.25 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles for Q1 of 2021.
Notably, although the national average for traffic fatalities increased, the NHTSA also segmented estimated fatalities by state, which demonstrated that 19 states and Puerto Rico showed an overall decline in estimated traffic deaths. A few states with the biggest overall decline include Arizona (31.4 percent), Montana (32.7 percent), North Dakota (41.7 percent), and Rhode Island (50 percent), while states with the largest increase include Delaware (163.2 percent), Hawaii (58.3 percent), Nebraska (55.6 percent), North Carolina (51.2 percent), and Vermont (66.7 percent).
“The overall numbers are still moving in the wrong direction. Now is the time for all states to double down on traffic safety,” said NHTSA Administrator Dr. Steven Cliff. Cliff also pointed out that the recent Bipartisan Infrastructure Law includes additional resources for “research, interventions and effective messaging and programs that can reverse the deadly trend and save lives.”
Looking ahead, GM hopes to achieve “zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion,” and to that end, GM introduced a new safety brand dubbed Periscope last year. Periscope seeks to usher in a “holistic approach to vehicle safety” that covers three key areas, specifically vehicle technology, research, and advocacy. In-vehicle tech under the Periscope brand now includes systems like Buckle to Drive and Teen Driver mode, as well as OnStar Guardian.
Subscribe to GM Authority for more GM-related safety news, GM technology news, and around-the-clock GM news coverage.
Source: NHTSA
Comments
Too many electronic distractions. No road and handling focus.
Could not agree more, with smartphones being the number one culprit…
What would be even better would be for GM to start including the safety features in ALL models of vehicles such as lane centering, forward collision control, rear vehicle approaching , back up warning alarm, cross traffic alerts and parking assist. Tomg
Really, why can’t people drive correctly nowadays? Maybe let’s make driver education required.
Carl: You get a triple AMEN on that one!!
Not surprised, traffic laws are no longer enforced since the pandemic. Speeding is rampant and the police don’t seem to care
Why would police care? Their understaffed and deadly drivers get off without bail.
Mandatory on line virtual refreshers every five years.
Respect for Class 8 trucks and their braking systems. Do not use cruise control on wet, snowy, icy roads.
I’d add re-testing after: first 5 years of license, more than 3 moving violations, and every 5 years after 60.
Because people are allowed to drive like idiots – slow cars in the fast lanes of the freeways, changing lanes without signaling, turning right from left lane, etc. Like it was said earlier, too many distractions – get rid of most of the infotainment BS, go back to just having a radio with push buttons and two knobs and a simple A/C control unit, not having to go through menus just to change the fan speed where you want the air to blow from. The defund the police crusade didn’t help either and with criminals being released on no bail just to commit more crimes, I can see why the cops just throw their hands up and say “why”. The manufacturers have created this problem with over saturation of electronic choices in vehicles along with all the federally mandated “safety monitors” like lane keep assist, blind spot warning systems, emergency braking, etc. It makes drivers not need to be aware of their surroundings and further removes the driver from the driving experience.
Driving is a right, not a privilege. One should have to meticulously prove one’s ability–and need–to drive before getting a driver’s license. Unless and until we distribute drivers’ licenses accordingly, a lot of people will be driving who really shouldn’t be.
Of course, people will still need to get around. Imagine if we had a decent, reliable mass transit system! So a person could, say, go from his house in Dover to a friend’s house in Denver cheaply and easily! Like, a system that ran on rails and connected pretty much anywhere to everywhere! Nah, we don’t have the technology….
eskothomson you’ve got that backwards – Driving is a privilege, not a right. If you can’t read or write the same language that the traffic signage is in, you shouldn’t be driving in that country. Why do they offer driver tests in foreign languages when the signage (in America) is in English?
Ack! Yer right, I did get it backwards! Thanks for the edit!
I have no interest in mass transit whatsoever.
I can totally see why the numbers are up. The way people drive out here (LA) is just deplorable. Just yesterday I was going to pick up my kids from school when a d-bag in a new Audi thought he was going to pass me from the turn lane on a city street WITH TRAFIC COMING!! I put on my blinker like I was going to go into the turn lane and he pulled back. But this wasn’t good enough for him and he decided to pass me on the shoulder, all while I was driving at the legal speed limit. This guy deserved a ticket.
Others above had rightly stated that driving (your DL) is a privilege and not a right. That is correct. I also read about the cops not giving tickets because the drivers get off without bail. Having been a police officer, this needs to be corrected. The police can pull cars over all day long and give tickets all day long. That has little or nothing to do with getting off without bail. Yes, the police are under staffed and really need more traffic cops. Then get that ticket book out and start writing ticket after ticket.
Lastly, the people who brought up the distractions are the most right. We have become our own worst enemy here by demanding the huge screens, phone connections, video streaming and so much more. We have left the driving to everyone else on the road so we can play with our stuff. If you don’t want to drive and prefer to stare at a screen, then give up your DL and take an Uber or public transportation!
The NHTSA press release showed fatalities per million miles driven as a very slight increase for 2022 vs 2021.What it didn’t show was that fatalities per million miles driven were 19% higher in 2002, just 20 years ago. Traffic safety can always be improved, but the sky is not falling.
https://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/States/StatesFatalitiesFatalityRates.aspx