Accidents at 20-Year High Despite Fewer People Traveling

Coronavirus lockdowns led to huge reductions in traffic and fewer car crashes this spring, but as drivers sped up on quieter roads, the collisions have become deadlier in several cities, analysis shows.

In New York City, the ratio of fatal crashes to all collisions rose 167% in April from a year ago.The increase was 292% in Chicago and 65% in Boston.

Even as traffic plummeted across the United States, roads became more lethal, with a 37% increase in fatality rates per miles driven in April, compared to the same month last year, the lockdowns and reduced road congestion had created an “apparent open season on reckless driving.”

NewsNet has been monitoring the numbers and statistics and wanted to know what is being done to make the roads safe once again especially now when everyone has so much on their minds causing a higher degree of distracted drivers.

We sent a team of reporters across America to talk with the educators, safety facilitators, the researchers, government officials and took a close look at one auto manufacturer that has its foot on the gas to make its vehicles and the roads safer now and in the future.

NewsNet visited with the founders of the Buckle It program based at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital to learn more about how they work with parents to teach them how to safely and properly install child safety seats.

Then to the Toyota Collaborative Safety Research Center (CSRC) in Michigan, where the intensity has risen a notch to conduct research that contributes to the enhancement of safety for all drivers, passengers and pedestrians on the roads, not just in relation to Toyota vehicles, but to advance safety in all vehicles.