the fatality rate per mile driven was *up* 14 percent in March 2020 vs a year earlier https://t.co/hGKdp31H7S
— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) May 20, 2020
Apparently there are some people who just don’t want to stay alive. But why do they have to take so many innocent bystanders with them?
… The National Safety Council said preliminary data show that in March, when most Americans began to drive less because of pandemic-related stay-at-home orders, the fatality rate per mile driven went up by 14 percent compared with March 2019.
The traffic fatality data, compiled from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, confirm the alarming reports across the country that speeding and reckless driving during the health crisis are leading to a disproportionate number of crashes and fatalities.
“The risk on our roads has actually increased,” said Ken Kolosh, the council’s manager of statistics, who ran the data analysis. “Although an 8 percent decrease in deaths from one March to the next March is great news, that decrease should have been even greater if the risk on our roads had stayed the same. We should have seen closer to an 18 percent decrease in deaths.”…
As traffic volumes fell dramatically following the stay at-home orders, average speeds increased significantly above posted limits, more than doubling in some cities, traffic data show. Police agencies from New York City to Los Angeles reported more speed-related crashes. State troopers in Maryland, Virginia, California and Minnesota have reported writing more speeding tickets. Some drivers have been caught traveling at speeds topping 130 mph...
Even with the 8 percent decline in fatalities in March, the council said road deaths were up 2 percent in the first quarter of 2020 compared with the same time period last year.
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