2020 saw highest number of fatal crashes nationwide in 13 years: NHTSA report

The U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently released its 2020 annual traffic crash data. According to the report, 2020 saw the highest number of fatal crashes since 2007, with nearly 40 thousand lives lost in traffic crashes across the nation.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (KLFY) -- The U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently released its 2020 annual traffic crash data. According to the report, 2020 saw the highest number of fatal crashes since 2007, with nearly 40 thousand lives lost in traffic crashes across the nation.

The estimated numbers of police-reported crashes and people injured both decreased in 2020 compared to 2019, but the number of fatalities increased.

Here's a breakdown of fatality data in 2020 compared to 2019:

• Estimated number of police-reported crashes: -22%
• Estimated number of people injured: -17%
• Fatal crashes: +6.8%
• Fatality rate per 100 million vehicle miles traveled was 1.34: +21%
• Fatalities in speeding-related crashes: +17%
• Fatalities in alcohol-impaired driving crashes: +14%
• Unrestrained passenger vehicle occupant fatalities: +14%
• Motorcyclist fatalities: +11% (highest number since first data collection in 1975)
• Bicyclist fatalities: +9.2% (highest number since 1987)
• Passenger car occupant fatalities: +9%
• Fatalities in urban areas: +8.5%
• Pedestrian fatalities: +3.9% (highest number since 1989)
• Fatalities in hit-and-run crashes: +26%
• Fatalities in large-truck crashes: -1.3%

Total vehicle miles traveled decreased by 11% in 2020, from 3,261,772 million to 2,903,622 million.

In 45% of fatal crashes, the drivers were engaged in at least one of the following risky behaviors: speeding, alcohol impairment, or not wearing a seatbelt.

38,824 lives were lost to traffic crashes nationwide. In Louisiana, the number of people killed in crashes in 2020 was 828, the highest number in the state since 2008, according to data compiled from Louisiana State University.

At the end of January, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) released the federal government’s comprehensive National Roadway Safety Strategy, a roadmap to address the national crisis in traffic fatalities and serious injuries. The strategy adopts the safe system approach and builds multiple layers of protection with safer roads, safer people, safer vehicles, safer speeds, and better post-crash care. 

“The rising fatalities on our roadways are a national crisis; we cannot and must not accept these deaths as inevitable,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “People should leave the house and know they’re going to get to their destination safely, and with the resources from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, plus the policies in the National Roadway Safety Strategy we launched last month, we will do everything we can to save lives on America’s roads.”

Read the NHTSA's full overview of motor vehicle crashes in 2020 here.