Preventable deaths in U.S. traffic crashes from 1970-2024

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Transportation Safety
• Economics

Background:

• US traffic safety has progressively worsened compared to 14 other high-income nations since the 1990s.
• A significant and widening gap in traffic fatality rates has emerged between the US and these comparator countries.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantify the annual and cumulative number of preventable traffic deaths in the US.
• To estimate the economic cost associated with these preventable fatalities.
• To compare US traffic safety performance against an average of 14 comparable countries.

Main Methods:

• Utilized OECD traffic fatality data from 1970-2024 for the US and 14 comparable countries.
• Normalized fatality data to a 1970 baseline ratio (1.00) to track changes over time.
• Employed t-tests to determine statistical significance of differences in fatality ratios (p < 0.05).

Main Results:

• US fatality ratio diverged significantly from the 14-country average starting in 2001 (p < 0.01), widening over time.
• In 2024, the US ratio was 3.42 times higher than the average; preventable deaths exceeded 15,000 annually since 2003.
• Cumulative preventable deaths reached 660,176 (1977-2024), with 80% in the last 25 years, costing $813 billion economically and $4.52 trillion in VSL.

Conclusions:

• Over 528,000 preventable traffic deaths occurred in the US from 2000-2024, costing $754 billion and $4.30 trillion (VSL).
• These losses could have been mitigated if the US adopted safety strategies employed by the 14 comparator nations.
• International best practices, including automated enforcement and road safety improvements, are crucial for reducing US traffic fatalities.