Economy

Traffic Deaths in This State Soared 32% Last Year

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: October 2, 2020 6:47 am

Last Updated: October 2, 2020 6:49 am

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Safety Administration made its annual report on American traffic deaths. For 2019, the figure dropped 2% to 36,096. It was the third consecutive annual decline. However, the figures were very uneven by state. They ranged from an increase of over 32% to a drop of more than 31%.

Traffic deaths were spread among three categories. Those in which a car or truck was driven by an individual numbered 23,744 in 2019, down 2.4%. Motorcycle accidents killed 5,014 people, a decline of 0.5%. Pedestrian deaths, which have an official designation of “non-occupied fatalities,” dropped 1.7% to 7,338. Of these, 6,205 were pedestrians, while 846 were on bicycles.

These deaths rose 32.4% in Wyoming to 147. That was well ahead of the next state, Delaware, where the figure rose by 18.9% to 132. The only other state with a double-digit increase was Maine, where the number jumped 15.4% to 157.

At the other end of the spectrum was New Hampshire, where deaths dropped 31.3% to 101. The next largest decrease was in neighboring Vermont, down 30.9% to 47. The only other state where the decline was over 20% was South Dakota, where the number was 21.5% lower to 102.

Among the largest states by population, traffic deaths in California declined 5.1% to 3,606. They slipped 0.9% in Texas to 3,615. The figure in Florida was 1.5% higher to 3,183. In New York, traffic deaths dropped 3.4% to 931.

These are the numbers by state:

Note: U.S. total excludes Puerto Rico.
Source: FARS 2018 Final File, 2019 ARF.