Traffic Deaths in This State Soared 32% Last Year

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Oct 2, 6:47AM EDT

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

Traffic Deaths in This State Soared 32% Last Year — © Tashi-Delek / Getty Images

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.
[nativounit]
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:

State	2018	2019	Change
Alabama	953	930	−2.4%
Alaska	80	67	−16.3%
Arizona	1,011	981	−3.0%
Arkansas	520	505	−2.9%
California	3,798	3,606	−5.1%
Colorado	632	596	−5.7%
Connecticut	293	249	−15.0%
Delaware	111	132	18.9%
District of Columbia	31	23	−25.8%
Florida	3,135	3,183	1.5%
Georgia	1,505	1,491	−0.9%
Hawaii	117	108	−7.7%
Idaho	234	224	−4.3%
Illinois	1,035	1,009	−2.5%
Indiana	860	809	−5.9%
Iowa	319	336	5.3%
Kansas	405	411	1.5%
Kentucky	724	732	1.1%
Louisiana	771	727	−5.7%
Maine	136	157	15.4%
Maryland	512	521	1.8%
Massachusetts	355	334	−5.9%
Michigan	977	985	0.8%
Minnesota	381	364	−4.5%
Mississippi	663	643	−3.0%
Missouri	921	880	−4.5%
Montana	181	184	1.7%
Nebraska	230	248	7.8%
Nevada	329	304	−7.6%
New Hampshire	147	101	−31.3%
New Jersey	563	559	−0.7%
New Mexico	392	424	8.2%
New York	964	931	−3.4%
North Carolina	1,436	1,373	−4.4%
North Dakota	105	100	−4.8%
Ohio	1,068	1,153	8.0%
Oklahoma	655	640	−2.3%
Oregon	502	489	−2.6%
Pennsylvania	1,190	1,059	−11.0%
Rhode Island	59	57	−3.4%
South Carolina	1,036	1,001	−3.4%
South Dakota	130	102	−21.5%
Tennessee	1,040	1,135	9.1%
Texas	3,648	3,615	−0.9%
Utah	260	248	−4.6%
Vermont	68	47	−30.9%
Virginia	820	831	1.3%
Washington	539	519	−3.7%
West Virginia	294	260	−11.6%
Wisconsin	589	566	−3.9%
Wyoming	111	147	32.4%
U.S. Total	36,835	36,096	−2.0%
Puerto Rico	308	289	−6.2%

Note: U.S. total excludes Puerto Rico.
Source: FARS 2018 Final File, 2019 ARF.
[recirclink id=770179]
[wallst_email_signup]

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.