Deadly Pandemic Highways: Fewer Cars, More Deaths On Ohio Roads

OHIO — During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ohio's highways took on a spooky, empty feel. There was rarely traffic congestion, even in the heart of rush hour.

New data from AAA now suggests that despite a steep drop in daily traffic, roadways in Ohio and across the nation became deadlier in 2020.

“It’s counterintuitive to see the rate of traffic deaths spike when so many of us were driving less often,” said Jake Nelson, AAA’s director of traffic safety advocacy. “As the U.S. climbs out of the COVID-19 pandemic, highway safety officials will need to double down on curbing speeding, substance-impaired driving, and failure to buckle up.”

Traffic fell more than 40 percent in Ohio in 2020 and plunged by nearly half in April 2020 across the U.S., the Ohio Department of Transportation reported.

Traffic began returning to pre-pandemic levels in the second half of the year, but remained 20 to 25 percent below 2019 levels, data from AAA suggested.

Even with fewer cars on the roads, 36,680 Americans died in car crashes in 2020, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's projections. That's the most crash-related deaths since 2007 and an increase of 7.2 percent versus 2019.

Ohio saw traffic deaths jump 6.4 percent in 2020 versus 2019, with 1,155 people dying in crashes, the Ohio Department of Transportation said.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on our commute habits and patterns in the United States,” said David Yang, executive director of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. “Findings based on our survey data provided some contextual information to understand better how this unfortunate event has affected the way we travel.”