Traffic deaths are down so far in 2025, according to new data shared by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). NHTSA projects that traffic fatalities declined about 6.3% in the first quarter, with 8,055 lives lost. This marks the 12th consecutive quarterly decline in fatalities, and the estimated quarterly fatality rate is the lowest in six years.
“While traffic fatalities remain far too high, we are encouraged to see such a decline and pledge to continue working to drive down these numbers even more. NHTSA will continue to use all of its resources to educate Americans about dangerous driving behaviors and advance meaningful policies that will save lives. The agency is also strengthening its relationships with law enforcement to ensure traffic laws are being enforced to save lives,” NHTSA Chief Counsel Peter Simshauser said.
NHTSA says it estimates that fatalities decreased in 33 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
According to the federal agency's data, the fatality rate for the first quarter decreased to 1.05 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, down from the rate of 1.13 from the same time in 2024. Safety regulators say this is the lowest quarterly fatality rate since the first quarter of 2019. Vehicle miles traveled in the quarter remained mostly flat at 4.3 billion miles, or about a 0.6% increase.
NHTSA Discussion
According to the NHTSA report, during the COVID-19 pandemic there were marked increases in fatalities and the fatality rates per 100 million VMT in 2020. The increased trend of fatalities in 2020 continued into 2021 and the first quarter of 2022. However, the second, third, and fourth quarters of 2022, all four quarters of 2023 and 2024, plus the first quarter of 2025, have experienced 12 consecutive quarterly declines in fatalities after 7 consecutive quarters of year-to-year increases in fatalities, since the third quarter of 2020. The increased trend of the fatality rates per 100 million VMT in 2020 continued into the first quarter of 2021, decreased in the second and the third quarters of 2021, and increased again in the first quarter of 2022. The second, third, and fourth quarters of 2022, all four quarters of 2023 and 2024, plus the first quarter of 2025, also experienced 12 consecutive quarterly declines in fatality rates per 100 million VMT.
NHTSA says it is continuing to gather and finalize data on crash fatalities for 2025 using information from police crash reports and other sources. These estimates will be further refined when the projections for the first 6 months of 2025 are released in late September.
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