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This past Monday the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released the final accounting for the crash toll on United States roads for 2021. There was a 10.5% increase in the number of deaths as compared to 2020. That is the highest number since 2005 and the largest percentage increase since 1975! At a news conference speakers from NHTSA focused a lot on distracted driving fatalities which are, of course, entirely preventable if people stop using their cell phones, eating or doing other things that divert attention from the road.

That was the headline in the Tuesday, September 6 issue of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The article went on to point out that speed related traffic deaths last year (2021) surged 45% pushing overall traffic deaths to a level not seen in the state since 2007.

An online publication called Vox published an interesting article on April 18 of this year. The author noted that more than 31,000 people died in car crashes on America’s roads in the first nine months of 2021 which was a 12% increase over the previous year.

In today's New York Times was a disturbing article discussing road rage and guns. It seems that with the proliferation of guns in our society along with an increasing polarization of American Society has resulted in a dramatic increase in road rage related shootings.

In the online journal Slate on January 26, 2022 was an article with the same title as above. The author analyzed data from a study that was actually completed by the University of Michigan and published in 2008. That study looked at data from 6950 crashes and came up with 6 of the most common crash scenarios.

What do the 2 have in common? This is from the Los Angeles Times on December 10 of this year. They reported that last year 38,680 people died in car crashes, which was the highest tally since 2007.

On October 19, 2021 the Minneapolis Star Tribune published an article in the business section concerning increasing traffic fatalities in Minnesota. Minnesota is closing in on 400 traffic deaths for 2021 and will most likely set the record for most traffic fatalities since 2007. You would think that given fewer people on the roads due to the pandemic, there would be naturally fewer crashes and fewer deaths.

That is a common question and the very lawyer-like answer is "it depends." Personal injury lawyers look at the following elements when determining whether a case has merit and, if so, what it's worth.

You would think that with fewer people driving to and from work, there would be less traffic and consequently fewer injuries and deaths on our streets and highways. It turns out that is not the case. In today's Arizona Daily Star was a report out of Detroit from the National Safety Council. They reported that 42,060 people died in vehicle crashes in 2020, an 8% increase over 2019 and the first jump in 4 years. Even worse, the fatality rate per 100 million miles driven jumped 24%, the largest annual percentage increase since they begin collecting data IN 1923!

In the September 25 ed. of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, on the front page of the sports section was an article discussing ATV deaths and injuries.