[tiahura]

'Tragic': Driving Was Down In 2020, But Traffic Fatality Rates Surged

The National Safety Council (NSC) says deaths from motor vehicles rose 8% last year, with as many as 42,060 people dying in vehicle crashes.

When comparing traffic deaths to the number of miles driven, the rate of fatalities rose 24% — the highest spike in nearly a century, NSC says.

https://www.npr.org/2021/03/05/974006735/tragic-driving-was-...

[ortusdux]

Enforcement went down to basically zero in my area. Now that the officers are vaccinated, they have started aggressively enforcing moving violations.

[petertodd]

Remember that kinetic energy is proportional to velocity squared. So if less traffic is letting people drive faster, that could easily result in more deaths. I live in a city, and average speeds certainly seem faster than pre-pandemic traffic.

Also, working at home may be allowing people to avoid traffic because hours are less strict. Again, that would allow traffic to move faster on average.