Traffic Deaths Since Lockdown

Traffic deaths have always been a problem in the United States, particularly in certain areas. However, traffic deaths since lockdown have escalated since the pandemic, with a 10.5% increase in fatalities from 2020 to 2021. 

This statistic may come as a surprise to some because people were forced to stay home and work remotely during this stretch of time. So, why have these accidents increased? Is it going to continue to go in that direction? Here’s what the numbers indicate. 

Deaths by Age Group 

The first thing to look at when looking into the data of traffic deaths since lockdown is to compare notes for what deaths were with what age groups in 2020 and 2021. 

Three notable age groups stand out for increases from year to year. The first is the 25-34 age group, the second is the 35-44 age group, and the last age group is 65+. All three of these age groups had a percentage increase of at least 10%.

The 25-34 group went from 7,747 deaths in 2020 to 8,494 in 21. The 35-44 age group went from 5,862 deaths in 2020 to 6,714 deaths in 2021. Finally, the 65+ age group went from 6,578 deaths in 2020 to 7,530 deaths in 2021. 

However, one interesting note here is that despite having one of the biggest increases in overall deaths, the 65+ age group was at its lowest percentage share during the first four months of the pandemic. 

From March to September of 2020, that age group was never higher than 17% of the fatalities. During the first two months of 2020 and the last two months of 2021, that age group contributed to at least 20% of the total fatalities. 

When it comes to the 25-34-year-old age group, they had three months in 2021 where they were contributing to more than 20% of the total deaths. Back in 2020, there were only two such months where that was the case. 

One notable pattern with the 35-44 age group is that in 2021, the months where they were contributing to 16%+ of the total deaths more than doubled from 2020. It happened seven times in 2021 compared to just three times in 2020 respectively. 

Deaths by Number of Vehicles Involved

Another thing that you need to look at when you are analyzing these numbers is what kind of accidents are causing these deaths. For this, you only have two different options to choose from. Those options are single-vehicle accidents and multi-vehicle accidents. 

For all 24 months during this stretch, there were more single-vehicle fatalities than multi-vehicle fatalities. Multi-vehicle fatalities increased by 16% from 2020 to 2021 while single-vehicle fatalities increased by 6%. 

The worst stretch for multi-vehicle deaths was in the middle of 2021. From April to August of 2021, these accounted for at least 47% of the fatalities. That happened just one time in 2020 in comparison. 

In comparison, four of the five highest percentage months for single-vehicle fatalities occurred in 2020. The worst was from March to May of 2020, the first few months the pandemic really affected the United States. 

As for the total number of deaths for both, multi-vehicles increased by over 2,700 from year to year, and single-vehicle deaths increased by about 1,400 from year to year. 

Deaths by Person Type 

Now, you need to see what other factors cause a traffic death and what type of people are the ones that end up the victims of it. 

The five main types of people on the road that you need to be aware of for this are drivers, passengers, motorcyclists, pedestrians, and pedalcyclists. 

Drivers obviously lead this category by a significant margin. They have about 14,500 more deaths than the second-highest category at 21,837 deaths in 2021. That increased by 12% compared to the 2020 total. 

The person category that saw the biggest increase from 2020 to 2021 was pedestrians. They had an increase of 13% and a total of 7,342 deaths in 2021. 

Passengers and motorcyclists each saw an increase of 9% in deaths from 2020 to 2021. The total death increase was between 500-600 for each. 

Pedalcyclists saw an increase of 5% in deaths from 2020 to 2021. However, the category typically has less than 1,000 fatalities per year, so they are by far the smallest group represented in this report. 

Other Factors 

Besides looking at age group and person type, you need to understand what other factors can potentially cause a traffic death. The two that most often come up are typically alcohol-related deaths and ones that come from speeding. Sometimes, both of these things can play into a traffic death. 

Let’s start with alcohol. It does not have as many deaths attributed to it as speeding but still saw a 5% increase in 2021. That year, the total number of deaths that were related to alcohol was 8,174. 

Deaths related to speeding also increased by 5% from 2020 to 2021. There are slightly more deaths having to do with that though, with the 2021 total there being 11,780. 

Total Traffic Deaths Since Lockdown 

Now that you have an idea of how many deaths are represented in each category, let’s take a look at the overall total for each year. This increased by 10.5% in 2021 and saw about 4,000 total more deaths. 

In both years, the June through October months had the highest number of fatalities. However, the four highest overall months happened in the middle of 2021 from July to October. This was about when the COVID restrictions were the loosest in the United States in those two years. 

To compare the highest months to the lowest months, four of the five months in these two years that saw less than 3,000 deaths happened in 2020. 

Help if You’re in a Car Accident

These are just some of the statistics that you should be aware of when it comes to traffic deaths since lockdown. 

If you were injured in a car accident, contact the experienced attorneys at Alpha Accident Lawyers today. Our law firm offers a free consultation to get started.