Drivers continue to struggle to obey state laws that prevent cell phone use, due in part by demands or pressure from work that lead drivers to read or send emails while driving.
Estimates show a year-over-year 36.6% jump in fatality rates per miles driven in April, in spite of an 18% drop in the total number of roadway deaths compared to April 2019.
There was a 14% year-over-year jump in fatality rates per miles driven in March 2020, while the actual number of miles driven dropped 18.6% compared to the same time period last year.
An estimated 38,800 people were killed in automotive collisions in 2019, which translates into a 2% decline as compared with the 39,404 fatalities in 2018.
Motor vehicle crashes and falls remained the leading causes of preventable death on the job in 2018, as preventable and unintentional workplace deaths continue their rise in recent years, according to data from the U.S. Department of Labor.
Approximately 398 people could lose their lives and another 45,300 could suffer serious injuries on roadways over the Labor Day weekend, according to the National Safety Council's estimate, which is the lowest it has issued for the three-day holiday period since 2015.
In 2017, 374 pedestrians and 110 bicyclists age 5-19 were killed in traffic accidents with overall bicycle fatalities peaking in August.
Motor vehicle crashes ranked as the second-leading cause of unintentional, preventable deaths nationwide in 2017, according to the National Safety Council's annual report.
The National Safety Council predicts that there will be a more than 6% increase in roadway fatalities during the Fourth of July weekend compared to a year ago with 565 deaths over the four days.
Roadway fatalities in the U.S. dipped slightly in 2018 to approximately 40,000, representing just a 1% decrease from 2017 and 2016, when 40,231 and 40,327 people were killed in motor vehicles crashes, respectively.
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