Distraction deaths up 10%, NHTSA reports

Deaths from motor-vehicle crashes decreased slightly last year, but distraction-related fatalities were up 10 percent, federal analysts said.

2019 motor-vehicle crashes resulted in a 2 percent decrease in fatalities from 2018, according to final figures released in late December 2020 by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The number of deaths linked to driver distraction was 3,142 nationwide, or almost 9 percent of all fatalities in 2019. This represents a 10 percent increase over the year 2018, or 284 more fatalities, the NHTSA reported.

The distraction figure was the largest increase in causes of traffic deaths reported for 2019.

Drunken driving and drowsy driving both posted decreases for the year. Overall fatalities were down for the third year.

“If we’re to keep building on these numbers, everyone needs to do their part by driving sober, wearing their seat belts, avoiding speeding and distractions, and sharing the road with pedestrians and cyclists,” NHTSA Deputy Administrator James Owens said.

The federal report confirmed various contemporary reports of “increased risky driving behaviors during the 2020 public health emergency,” however.

“While the number of traffic fatalities during April to June 2020 were projected to decrease, there is a projected increase in the proportion of fatalities that occurred in rural areas, among younger people 16 to 24 years old, with risky drivers, in rollovers and ejections, and among occupants of older vehicles (10+ years),” the NHTSA report added.

The NHTSA issued a special supplementary report for the first half of 2020 on monthly traffic fatalities.

The 2019 traffic fatality report came from the federal Fatality Analysis Reporting System.

Fatalities decreased slightly in the categories of passengers, pedestrians and “pedalcyclists.”

> Read the full “Overview of Motor Vehicle Crashes in 2019” (PDF)