Even as pandemic restrictions drastically reduced traffic, 2020 saw 38,680 deaths on U.S. roadways, the most since 2007. Road fatalities were up in rural and metropolitan areas, on all types of roads, at all times of day, and in every age group of drivers, according to the most recent figures from the Transportation Department's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
"The latest evidence suggests that after decades of safety gains, the pandemic has made U.S. drivers more reckless — more likely to speed, drink or use drugs and leave their seatbelts unbuckled," Emily Baumgaertner and Russ Mitchell report for the Los Angeles Times. "The rise in motor vehicle deaths lines up with other pandemic-era trends: Alcohol sales have soared, drug overdoses have set new records, and homicides have seen their biggest increase on record."
Some researchers believe pandemic depression is the culprit, and note that car accident deaths for Black people were more than triple the overall death rate. The disparity "could reflect a deeper sense of despair in the poorer communities hit hardest by the pandemic," Baumgaertner and Mitchell report.
However, Shannon Frattaroli, a researcher at Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health, wondered if the disparity "was related to a disproportionate number of Black people in the essential workforce, including delivery drivers who are 'paid by how fast you can move'," Baumgaertner and Mitchell report.
Jonathan Adkins, director of the nonprofit Governors Highway Safety Association, told the Times the trend indicates "aggressive" and "very selfish" behavior. Many governors offices, he said, have told the organization that the increase in crashes is "a symptom and a sign of the overall lack of consideration we’re showing for other citizens, whether it be wearing masks, or not getting vaccinated, or how we drive."
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