The number of fatalities is still up for the first half of the year compared to 2021, as the death rate remains elevated during the pandemic
An estimated 10,590 people were killed in crashes between April and June. That is less than the 11,135 people killed during the same period last year.
But by the standards of the past decade, the death rate on the nation’s roads remains high and the improvement this spring disappears when the entire year is taken into account. NHTSA estimates that 20,175 people died in the first six months of 2022. That’s slightly more than the same period in 2021 and the most for the first half of a year since 2006, according to the new data.Ann Carlson, the acting head of NHTSA, said the figures for the second quarter were “heartening,” but that “the number of people dying on roads in this country remains a crisis.
“Traffic deaths appear to be declining for the first time since 2020, but they are still at high levels that call for urgent and sustained action,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement. “These deaths are preventable, not inevitable, and we should act accordingly.”Buttigieg recently laid out a roadway safety strategy, while the infrastructure law includes new funding for safety efforts.
The figures released Monday are statistical projections and don’t include detailed information about the types of crashes or whether the victims were drivers, passengers, pedestrians or cyclists.
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