Traffic Deaths In Arizona Up In 2021, New Estimates Show

ARIZONA — Traffic deaths in the United States were higher in 2021 than they had been in 16 years, with more fatalities in almost every state, including Arizona, federal highway safety officials said this week when they released early estimates on last year's highway crash deaths.

Around 42,915 people died on highways in the U.S. last year, up from 38,824 in 2020, a 10.5 percent increase — the biggest one-year increase in the history of its reports, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a statement on its website.

In Arizona, traffic fatalities were up 6.5 percent last year, compared to 2021, although it's important to note that more people lived in Arizona in 2021 than in 2020. In 2020, there were 1,054 traffic deaths in Arizona, according to the Traffic Safety Administration, compared to an estimated 1,123 last year.

The 2021 traffic fatality estimates show roads are becoming more deadly across the country. The area with the highest projected increase in traffic fatalities — 19 percent, almost double the national average — is the five-state region of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.

In comparison, the five-state region in the nation’s midsection — Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas and Nebraska — is estimated to see a 3 percent increase in fatalities.

In the three-state region that includes Arizona, California and Hawaii, highway traffic deaths in 2021 are projected to increase by 10 percent over 2020.

The projected increase comes on top of a record 38,824 traffic fatalities in 2020, at the time the highest number of fatalities since 2007.

Highway safety experts wondered at the time if dangerous driving during the pandemic — including driving at speeds exceeding 200 mph on highways absent the normal traffic loads of people commuting to and from work and going about their lives — was a blip or a long-term pattern.

The highway safety agency said the increased fatality rate per 100 million miles continued in the first quarter of 2021 but decreased in the second, third and fourth quarters.

Still, roads were only moderately safer by that measure.

Motorists drove about 11.2 percent more miles in 2021 than in 2020, or 325.2 billion miles more, as workers returned to the office and businesses reopened. The fatality rate per 100 million miles driven remained almost unchanged, though, down to an estimated 1.33 fatalities in 2021 from 1.34 fatalities per million miles the year prior.

Some other estimates from the report:

• Fatalities in multi-vehicle crashes were up 16 percent.
• Fatalities on urban roads were up 16 percent.
• Fatalities among drivers 65 and older were up 14 percent.
• Pedestrian fatalities were up 13 percent.
• Fatalities in crashes involving at least one large truck were up 13 percent.
• Daytime fatalities were up 11 percent.
• Motorcyclist fatalities were up 9 percent.
• Bicyclist fatalities were up 5 percent.
• Fatalities in speeding-related crashes were up 5 percent.
• Fatalities in police-reported, alcohol-involved crashes were up 5 percent.