Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Log In
National Transportation Safety Board

America Hasn’t Seen a Spike in Traffic Deaths This Bad in 50 Years

9:12 AM EDT on October 11, 2017

This graphic from NHTSA tells you how many people were killed in motor vehicle collisions last year, but says very little about the systemic causes of America’s abysmal traffic safety record.

In 2016, 37,461 people were killed in motor vehicle crashes, according to official statistics recently released by U.S. DOT -- a 5 percent increase over the previous year.

Coming on top of the 9 percent increase in 2015, that adds up to the worst two-year swing in traffic deaths in more than 50 years. Not since the early 1960s has the country seen such a spike. Safety is even getting worse according to federal officials' preferred metric -- deaths per mile driven rose 2.6 percent.

People walking or biking account for a rising share of total traffic deaths. Last year drivers killed nearly 6,000 pedestrians -- an increase of 9 percent. The number of people killed while cycling rose slightly to 580 -- still the highest toll since 1991.

Even before the current increase in the traffic fatality rate, America was falling far behind its international peers on street safety. But despite the preventable loss of tens of thousands of lives, the federal agencies that put out this update did not make any appeal for policy changes to turn this trend around.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released the above graphic on Twitter. It provides a rough breakdown of the primary factors causing fatal crashes (but not for pedestrian and cyclist fatalities), but these statistics are of limited value. As Boston University professor Ital Verdi has written, focusing entirely on driver error glosses over systemic causes like dangerous street design and car-centric transportation systems.

Earlier this year, the National Transportation Safety Board made a breakthrough on this front with a major new report calling on state and local governments to reduce the prevalence of lethal speeding. That kind of message is completely absent from U.S. DOT's by-the-numbers data release last week.

There is no call to action accompanying this news about the staggering death toll on America's streets. No reflection on the country's conventional traffic safety policies and how they have failed. There's barely even an acknowledgment that things are getting worse.

If anything good can come out of this awful news, it's a heightened awareness that our streets and transportation networks need to change. Federal transportation officials aren't getting that basic message out.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

Wednesday’s Headlines at a Discount

We talk a lot about how parking minimums drive up housing costs, but so do overly wide roads. Why not take away a lane or two and let people build on the land?

October 4, 2023

Watch 15 Years of Street Transformation in a Single Streetfilm

It's hard to see the big picture of just what has been accomplished between Times and Union squares. That's where Clarence Eckerson Jr. comes in.

October 4, 2023

Study: Remote Work Isn’t Always A Cure for America’s Driving Addiction

A lot of Americans traded long commutes for short errands during the pandemic — but whether that swap resulted in more or less driving is a consequence of policy choices.

October 4, 2023

Tuesday’s Headlines Are Trending Down

An estimated 19,515 people died in car crashes during the first half of 2023, which is down 3.3 percent but still 19,515 too many.

October 3, 2023
See all posts