Estimated Contribution of Peak-Hours Non-Commercial Vehicle Traffic to Fatality Rates

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August 29th, 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic, mitigation efforts such as stay-at-home orders, and ensuing trends such as the rise in working from home, have had substantial impacts on traffic. In March, NHTSA reported that vehicle miles traveled (VMT) decreased 11% from 2019 to 2020, while police-reported crashes decreased 22%. However, fatalities per 100 million VMT increased 21% from 2019 to 2020 (NHTSA, 2022). While fatality rates for 2017, 2018, and 2019 ranged from 1.11 to 1.17 per 100 million VMT, in 2020 the rate was 1.34 fatalities per 100 million VMT.

Read the full study here.