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Associated Press
Detroit (AP) — U.S. road traffic casualties began rising two years ago and will continue to do so in 2022.
Road fatalities increased 7% to 9,560 in the first three months of the year. It was the highest first quarter in 20 years, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates.
Road deaths have increased since pandemic lockdowns eased in 2020 as people returned to work and began traveling more by car. According to the agency, miles driven increased 5.6% year-over-year in the first quarter, adding nearly 40 billion miles.
But the rate of road deaths per 100 million miles traveled also increased from 1.25 to 1.27 during the quarter, according to the agency.
Prior to 2020, deaths had fallen for three years in a row.
The government blames excessive speeding, distracted driving and other reckless behavior, and promises to fund investments in speeding laws and building safer roads.
"The overall numbers are still headed in the wrong direction," he said in a prepared statement, NHTSA Director Stephen Cliff. "It's time for all states to step up road safety."
Infrastructure laws have funds to invest heavily in highway safety, he said, Cliff said. says.
The agency began running ads urging people to slow down and not drive while disabled. On Wednesday, it announced its annual nationwide disabled driving enforcement program with local police for several weeks around the Labor Day holiday.
About 43,000 people died on US roads last year. It is the highest price in 16 years.
Last year, road deaths increased by 10.5%, compared to his 2020. This is the largest rate of increase since NHTSA began collecting mortality data in his 1975. NHTSA will release his final numbers for 2021 in the fall.
NHTSA mortality estimates are usually close to actual figures.
Only three months before he was approved by the Senate to run NHTSA, Cliff will leave NHTSA next month to run the California Air Resources Board, which regulates pollution. . Chief Advisor Ann Carlson will run the agency until a new administrator is appointed.
