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We don't have full car crash fatality numbers for 2020 yet, but during the first 6 months of the year, which is when the strictest lockdowns were in effect, dea

We don't have full car crash fatality numbers for 2020 yet, but during the first 6 months of the year, which is when the strictest lockdowns were in effect, deaths were actually up 1% compared to 2019: https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/motor-vehicle/overview/preliminary-estimates/ https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/motor-vehicle/overview/prelimina... You can also see monthly estimates here from the same source: https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/motor-vehicle/overview/preliminary-monthly-estimates/ https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/motor-vehicle/overview/prelimina.... Overall, 2020 is not stacking up to be a better year for car accident deaths than 2019 was -- certainly not enough to make a big difference in the total number of deaths per year in the US.

will_pseudonym 6y ago
Interesting! That is really surprising to me. I would guess then that the increased traffic from people ordering online instead of in person offsets the increase in driving to work/socializing etc.
- abduhl 6y ago
  Risk of fatality in an accident is proportional to speed of the vehicles involved. People driving to work are stuck in traffic pre-COVID while the roads are ripe for hitting 80 mph during lockdowns and WFH.
  - will_pseudonym 6y ago
    That makes so much sense! Thank you for explaining, abduhl!
causehealth101 6y ago
One interesting, but unsettling statistic: the RATE of deaths per miles driven has increased by nearly 25% in 2020. https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a34240145/2019-2020-traffic-deaths-coronavirus/ https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a34240145/2019-2020-traffi... "When you factor in an important aspect of that change, vehicle miles traveled (VMT), you actually see that more people died this year, on average, than last year. That's because VMT was down a dramatic 16.6 percent (or 264.2 billion miles) in the first six months of 2020, which pushed up the fatality rate per 100 million VMT, a metric the NHTSA uses to more accurately compare vehicle and road safety over time. Using this number, the NHTSA discovered that fatalities per 100 million VMT climbed to 1.25 in 2020, up from the 1.06 in 2019, despite the same three-year decrease that the agency saw with fatalities-per-VMT that it did with overall fatalities leading into this year."

will_pseudonym 6y ago

Interesting! That is really surprising to me. I would guess then that the increased traffic from people ordering online instead of in person offsets the increase in driving to work/socializing etc.

abduhl 6y ago
Risk of fatality in an accident is proportional to speed of the vehicles involved. People driving to work are stuck in traffic pre-COVID while the roads are ripe for hitting 80 mph during lockdowns and WFH.
- will_pseudonym 6y ago
  That makes so much sense! Thank you for explaining, abduhl!

causehealth101 6y ago

One interesting, but unsettling statistic: the RATE of deaths per miles driven has increased by nearly 25% in 2020. https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a34240145/2019-2020-traffic-deaths-coronavirus/ https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a34240145/2019-2020-traffi... "When you factor in an important aspect of that change, vehicle miles traveled (VMT), you actually see that more people died this year, on average, than last year. That's because VMT was down a dramatic 16.6 percent (or 264.2 billion miles) in the first six months of 2020, which pushed up the fatality rate per 100 million VMT, a metric the NHTSA uses to more accurately compare vehicle and road safety over time. Using this number, the NHTSA discovered that fatalities per 100 million VMT climbed to 1.25 in 2020, up from the 1.06 in 2019, despite the same three-year decrease that the agency saw with fatalities-per-VMT that it did with overall fatalities leading into this year."