Over the past two years, the nation’s highways have become increasingly safer, with the number of traffic fatalities continuing to decline this year.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there were 8,650 traffic fatalities in the first quarter of 2024. This represents a decrease of more than 3% compared to the first three months of 2023.
Two of the first three months of the year saw declines in road fatalities: a 9.4% decrease in January and a 4% decrease in February. In March, road fatalities increased by nearly 4%.
Traffic fatalities fell despite an increase in miles driven. Historically, highway traffic fatalities tend to increase as drivers travel more miles on the road. Mileage has increased slightly, 0.6%, so far this year. As a result, the fatality rate (fatalities per 100 million miles driven) fell to 1.13 from 1.18 in the first quarter of last year.
“It’s encouraging to see traffic fatalities continue to fall, but more work must be done to reduce these preventable tragedies on our roads,” NHTSA Deputy Administrator Sophie Shulman said in a statement. “NHTSA works diligently to save lives and ensure our roads are safe for everyone, inside and outside of vehicles.”
Geographically, traffic fatalities fell in most parts of the country, with declines reported in 6 of 10 regions, including 30 states.
Region 4 (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Texas) reported the largest decrease at 12 percent. Region 2 (New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania) reported the largest increase at 6 percent. Region 10 (Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington) saw no change.
Among states, Rhodes saw the largest decline in traffic fatalities year-over-year. The Maritime state’s highway fatalities fell from 24 in the first quarter of 2023 to nine this year, a 62.5% decrease. Meanwhile, Maine saw its traffic fatalities double from 14 to 29, the largest increase in the country. Massachusetts had the lowest fatality rate at 0.5, while Mississippi had the highest at 1.9.
The decline in traffic fatalities in the first quarter of this year marks the eighth consecutive quarter of declines. However, highway fatalities are still significantly higher than they were a decade ago. The 8,650 traffic fatalities this year are more than 26 percent higher than the 6,856 reported in the first quarter of 2014. The fatality rate for that quarter was just 0.99, the lowest rate of any quarter in the past decade.
NHTSA’s early estimates for the first quarter include only total traffic fatalities and do not provide a breakdown by vehicle type, occupants or crash factors. Numbers for 2023 and 2024 are projections only, and more complete data for 2023 will be released later this year. Data for the first quarter of 2024 will be revised when the first six-month projections are released in late September. LL
