Road fatalities remain near record highs in states with the highest number of cases, despite an overall decline in car driving, prompting policymakers to deploy more police officers or install automated surveillance, such as speed cameras, to curb hasty and reckless driving.
People drive fewer kilometers than in 2019, but more die on the roads. Highway deaths increased as much as 18% between 2019 and 2022, even though miles driven decreased by 3%, according to a Stateline investigation of federal National Highway Traffic records. Security Administration and the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics
Experts blame poor driving behavior that took hold when roads were cleared at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. At the same time, law enforcement shifted its priorities away from highway code violations and many have struggled to hire officials amid increased scrutiny and criticism. especially after a police officer killed George Floyd in May 2020 in Minneapolis.
States and cities are looking at the number of deaths caused by dangerous driving by combining more police officers and debatable technologies, such as speed cameras and red-light cameras. But many critics see such approaches as potentially problematic, as the fines place a heavier monetary burden on low-income drivers. And others argue that the cameras violate people’s privacy and due process rights.
“Law enforcement has actually subsidized traffic enforcement enforcement,” said Jonathan Adkins, executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association. “We want to get the police back and defend them. But it has to be done in the right way and in a fair way. And we want to take a look at the technology: cameras don’t see race, they don’t see gender.
The nation’s two most populous states, California and Texas, have taken other paths. In October, California approved a speed camera pilot program, which will begin next year. Texas has reconsidered its 2019 ban on local speed cameras and red-light cameras, but state transportation officials have called on local police to step up enforcement. Fort Worth police have stepped up enforcement in response to residents’ court cases about reckless drivers, according to news reports, and issued 12,000 tickets for haste and reckless driving between November 2022 and April 2023.
Highway deaths increased 18% in California and 24% in Texas between 2019 and 2022, the last full year available according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
In Washington state, traffic fatalities increased 38% last year compared to 2019, reaching a 30-year high. In response, the state is expanding its limited use of radar. State officials plan to stop in Finland next month to see how the country works. It has used automated controls to reduce the number of road fatalities.
“When other people see a sign that says, ‘Speed cameras approaching,’ they slow down,” Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, said in a June interview with the Washington State Standard.
Nationally, most of the changes in fatal crashes were due to speeding, reckless driving and drug or alcohol use, according to data from the Federal Fatality Analysis Reporting System from 2019 to 2021, the latest year available from this source.
Driver fatalities rose the highest in this period, by 21%. Pedestrian and motorcyclist fatalities increased by as much as 18%, and bicyclist fatalities increased by as much as 12%.
Most of the accumulation between 2019 and 2022 occurred in cities, suburbs and small towns, with less affected rural spaces, according to separate federal statistics on traffic fatalities maintained through the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Vermont, which has struggled to fill police positions, saw the largest percentage increase among all states between 2019 and 2022, a 64% increase, from 47 to 77 deaths. Other states with giant percentage increases include Connecticut (54%), New Hampshire (47%), the District of Columbia (39%) and Washington (38%).
Car accidents are the most common cause of death among people under the age of 40 in Arkansas, Nebraska and Texas, according to a September Stateline analysis.
The only states that saw a reduction in traffic deaths between 2019 and 2022 were Wyoming (-9%), Rhode Island (5%), North Dakota (3%) and Idaho (2%). These 4 states, however, saw increases in the first six months of 2023 to 2022.
According to a state report, about a portion of Wyoming’s fatal crashes in 2022 were similar to running or wearing a seatbelt.
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In California, the speed camera law has stalled in the future due to disagreements over fines and the effects on low-income residents. The compromise bill, passed in October, will allow ticket network service for low-income drivers who get a ticket under the law. pilot program, and restrict the installation of cameras on streets with hasty disorder in a handful of cities.
Adkins, executive director of the governors’ safety group, said other states are taking the same precaution.
“You have to be very careful with those camera shows. We don’t need cameras to be a trap,” Adkins said. “They will only be provided in challenging areas. “
Another state installing more speed cameras is Pennsylvania, where a pilot program has installed speed cameras on a street in Philadelphia and in paint zones across the state. A bill to make the program permanent and expand it to Philadelphia passed the House and is currently pending before a state Senate committee. Highway deaths in Pennsylvania increased 12% between 2019 and 2022, according to Stateline analysis.
In Hiladelphia, speed cameras cut fatal crashes in half, saved about 36 lives and reduced rushing by 95% after they were installed in 2020 on the 14-mile stretch of Roosevelt Boulevard, a major thoroughfare, according to city records received through Stateline. The cameras detected 8,305 speeders in February 2023, up from 224,000 when they were first installed in June 2020.
States that have banned cameras for speeding and/or red-light violations cite court cases from drivers over steep fines and say it’s unfair for drivers to face charges from machines instead of police officers. The National Automobile Association, a drivers’ advocacy group, opposes red lights and speed cameras, saying they infringe on procedural rights.
Some Texas lawmakers called the cameras a violation of constitutional principles of the presumption of innocence and the right to confront the accuser when they passed a bipartisan 2019 measure banning photo enforcement. Other states with legislation banning traffic cameras include Maine, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wisconsin, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, an industry group.
The Missouri Supreme Court struck down St. Louis’ red light cameras in 2015, saying they were unconstitutional because the cameras could not document who was driving the vehicle. However, amid rising death tolls, the city announced in September that it was considering a new allocation for speed cameras and red light cameras that record drivers’ faces and license plates.
In Iowa, where 19 towns and cities use cameras to monitor speeds or red lights, Republican Sen. Mike Klimesh said he plans to reintroduce a bill next year that restricts fines and requires profit-sharing with the state in favor of a retirement fund for volunteers. I love firefighters. Cities deserve to have cameras placed in spaces where security takes place, Klimesh said.
“It would take cities to provide some knowledge to show that it makes sense to install the camera in that specific location, that it’s not just a trap or a profit generator,” Klimesh said. “We’re looking to make sure that ‘What they’re most interested in is the presence of law enforcement and officers in vehicles,'” he added. Klimesh sponsored a similar bill this year that failed to get a floor vote.
Like the scale planned by Washington officials in Finland, states are increasingly taking cues from Europe’s largely automated traffic control methods that reduce deaths, said Andi Hamre, director of policy and studies at the Eno Center for Transportation, a nonprofit that thinks about traffic policy. tank. This interest may help revive “Vision Zero” initiatives, aimed at eliminating road deaths entirely, whose numbers have lately gone in that direction.
“We left a lot on the table in terms of road safety, compared to certain positions in Spain, France and Scandinavia. Vision Zero works. What doesn’t work is ‘Vision Zero Lite’, as it turns out,” Hamre said. States like Texas, which have banned red lights and speed cameras, “just removed this tool from localities completely,” Hamre said.
Along with the rise of hasty and reckless driving, there has been an unexpected increase in the number of people who died in accidents who were not buckled up. The number of drivers and passengers who died in crashes without seat belts increased by as much as 24% between 2019 and 2021, according to data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System. The increases were among seniors aged 25 to 34, up 51%.
“It turns out that something was happening in other people that was leading to this riskier behavior, and we don’t know what was causing it,” said Jessica Cicchino, vice president of studies at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
“Even when other people weren’t driving much, those who were driving were doing so in a more risky manner,” Cicchino said.
Adkins said the decline in seat belt use is “a little crazy,” but other points are more understandable, given that the early days of the pandemic allowed other people to feel relaxed by driving poorly.
“People go crazy because they can,” Adkins said. They were so used to those roads being crowded. . . . And then our driving habit didn’t go back to normal. We want to be informed about the percentage of roads, and without that, unfortunately, we want to have more engineering and more law enforcement.
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Stateline is owned by States Newsroom, a grant-funded nonprofit news network and donor coalition as a 501c public charity(3). Stateline maintains its editorial independence. Please contact Editor-in-Chief Scott S. Greenberger if you have questions: [email protected]. Follow Stateline on Facebook and X.
by Tim Henderson, Louisiana Illuminator November 11, 2023
Traffic fatalities remain near all-time highs in states with higher case counts despite an overall decline in driving, prompting policymakers to deploy more police or install automated surveillance, such as speed cameras, to curb traffic fatalities. hurried and reckless driving.
People are traveling fewer miles than they did in 2019, but more are dying on the roads. Road traffic fatalities increased by 18% between 2019 and 2022; miles traveled decreased 3%, according to Stateline research from federal records from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the U. S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics. U. S.
Experts blame poor driving behavior that occurred when roads were cleared at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. At the same time, law enforcement has shifted its priorities away from traffic violations, and many have struggled to hire officials amid increased scrutiny. and criticism, especially after a police officer killed George Floyd in May 2020 in Minneapolis.
States and cities are looking at the number of deaths caused by dangerous driving through a combination of more police officers and debatable technologies, such as speed cameras and red-light cameras. But many critics see those approaches as potentially problematic, as fines pose a greater monetary burden for low-income drivers. And others say the cameras violate people’s privacy and their right to due process.
“Law enforcement has actually subsidized traffic enforcement enforcement,” said Jonathan Adkins, executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association. “We want to get the police back and defend them. But it has to be done in the right way and in a fair way. And we want to take a look at the technology: cameras don’t see race, they don’t see gender.
The two most populous states in the country, California and Texas, have taken other paths. In October, California approved a speed camera pilot program, which will begin next year. Texas has reconsidered its 2019 ban on local speed cameras and red light cameras, but state transportation officials have asked local police to step up enforcement. Fort Worth police have stepped up enforcement in response to residents’ court cases over reckless driving, according to news reports, issuing 12,000 tickets for speeding and reckless driving between November 2022 and April 2023.
Highway fatalities increased 18% in California and 24% in Texas between 2019 and 2022, the latest full year available according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
In Washington state, traffic fatalities rose 38% last year compared to 2019, reaching a 30-year high. In response, the state is expanding the limited use of radar. State officials plan to stop in Finland next month to see how the country has used automated checks to reduce traffic deaths.
“When other people see a sign that says, ‘Speed cameras are coming,’ they slow down,” Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, said in a June interview with the Washington State Standard.
Nationally, most changes in fatal crashes were due to speeding, reckless driving and drug or alcohol use, according to data from the Federal Fatality Analysis Reporting System from 2019 to 2021, the latest year available from this source.
Driver deaths increased the most in this period, 21%. Pedestrian and motorcyclist deaths increased by up to 18%, and cyclist deaths increased by up to 12%.
Most of the accumulation between 2019 and 2022 occurred in cities, suburbs and small towns, with less affected rural spaces, according to separate federal statistics on traffic fatalities maintained through the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
– Jonathan Adkins, executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association
Vermont, which is struggling to fill police jobs, saw the largest percentage increase of any state between 2019 and 2022, jumping 64% from 47 to 77 deaths. Other states with a huge percentage increase were Connecticut (54 percent), New Hampshire (47 percent), the District of Columbia (39 percent) and Washington (38 percent).
Road traffic injuries are the most common cause of death among people under the age of 40 in Arkansas, Nebraska and Texas, according to a September Stateline analysis.
The only states that saw a reduction in traffic fatalities between 2019 and 2022 were Wyoming (down 9%), Rhode Island (down 5%), North Dakota (down 3%), and Idaho (down 2%). , however, saw increases in the first six months of 2023 to 2022.
According to a state report, about a portion of Wyoming’s fatal crashes in 2022 were similar to running or wearing a seatbelt.
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In California, the speed camera law has stalled going forward due to disagreements over fines and the effects on low-income residents. The compromise bill, passed in October, will allow ticket netting for low-income drivers who get a ticket under the law. pilot program, and restrict the installation of cameras on streets with rush disorders in a handful of cities.
Adkins, executive director of the Governors’ Security Group, said other states have a similar precaution.
“You have to be very careful with those camera programs. We don’t need the cameras to be a trap,” Adkins said. “They should only be placed in spaces that are problematic. “
Another state installing more radars is Pennsylvania, where a pilot program has installed radars on a Philadelphia street and in paint zones throughout the state. A bill to make the program permanent and expand it to Philadelphia passed the House of Representatives and is ultimately pending before a state Senate committee. Road fatalities in Pennsylvania increased 12% between 2019 and 2022, according to Stateline’s analysis.
In Hiladelphia, speed cameras cut fatal crashes in half, saved about 36 lives and reduced rushing by 95% after they were installed in 2020 along the 14-mile stretch of Roosevelt Boulevard, a major thoroughfare, records show of the city received through Stateline. The cameras detected 8,305 speeders in February 2023, up from 224,000 when they were first installed in June 2020.
States that have banned cameras for speeding and/or red-light violations cite court cases from drivers over steep fines and say it’s unfair that drivers have to face charges from machines instead of police officers. The National Automobile Association, a motive advocacy group, opposes red lights and speed cameras, saying they infringe on due process rights.
Some Texas lawmakers called the cameras a violation of the constitutional principles of the presumption of innocence and the right to confront the accuser when they passed a 2019 bipartisan measure banning the app of photographs. Other states with legislation banning traffic cameras include Maine, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wisconsin, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a professional organization.
The Missouri Supreme Court struck down St. Louis’ red light cameras in 2015, saying they were unconstitutional because the cameras couldn’t document who was driving the car. However, with the death toll rising, the city announced in September that it is considering a new allocation for speed cameras and red-light cameras that record drivers’ faces and license plates.
In Iowa, where 19 towns and cities use cameras to monitor speeds or red lights, Republican Sen. Mike Klimesh said he plans to reintroduce a bill next year that restricts fines and requires profit-sharing with the state in favor of a retirement fund for volunteers. I love firefighters. Cities deserve to have cameras placed in spaces where security takes place, Klimesh said.
“It would take cities to provide some knowledge to show that it makes sense to install the camera in that specific location, that it’s not just a trap or a profit generator,” Klimesh said. “What they’re most interested in is the presence of law enforcement officers and officers in vehicles,” he added. Klimesh sponsored a similar bill this year that failed to get a floor vote.
Like Washington’s planned stop in Finland, states are increasingly taking inspiration from Europe’s more commonly automated traffic methods that reduce fatalities, said Andi Hamre, director of policy and studies at the Eno Center for Transportation. , a nonprofit traffic think tank. This interest may help revive “Vision Zero” initiatives, aimed at completely eliminating road deaths, whose numbers have recently taken a wrong turn.
“We are leaving a lot on the table in terms of road safety, compared to some countries in Spain, France and Scandinavia. Vision Zero paintings. What doesn’t work is “Vision Zero Lite,” as we’ve seen,” Hamre said. States like Texas that have banned red lights and speed cameras “have just completely eliminated that tool from localities,” Hamre said.
Along with the rise of hasty and reckless driving, there has been an unexpected increase in the number of people killed in accidents that were not buckled up. The number of drivers and passengers who died in unbelted crashes increased 24% between 2019 and 2021, according to data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System. The increases were among seniors aged 25 to 34, up 51%.
“It turns out that something was happening in other people that was leading to this riskier behavior, and we don’t know what was causing it,” said Jessica Cicchino, vice president of studies at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
“Even when other people didn’t drive much, those who did drive did so in a riskier way,” Cicchino said.
Adkins said the decline in seat belt use is “a little crazy,” but other points are more understandable, given that the early days of the pandemic allowed other people to feel relaxed by driving poorly.
“People go crazy because they can,” Adkins said. They were so used to those roads being crowded. . . And then our driving habit hasn’t gotten back to normal. We have to be informed about how percentages of the roads, and without that, unfortunately, we will have to have more engineering and more law enforcement.
SUPPORT THE NEWS YOU SHARE.
Stateline is owned by States Newsroom, a grant-funded nonprofit news network and donor coalition as a 501c public charity(3). Stateline maintains its editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger if you have questions: info@stateline. org. Follow Stateline on Facebook and X.
Louisiana Illuminator is owned by States Newsroom, a network of grant-backed news bureaus and a coalition of donors as a 501c public charity(3). Louisiana Illuminator maintains its editorial independence. Please contact editor Greg LaRose if you have any questions: info@lailluminator. com. Follow the Louisiana Illuminator on Facebook and Twitter.
Tim Henderson has been a reporter for the Miami Herald, the Cincinnati Enquirer, and the Journal News in the suburbs of New York City. Henderson became fascinated with knowledge of the census in the early 1990s, when AOL introduced the first automated reports. then, he has published articles on demographic trends in South Florida, adding research on housing affordability included in the 2007 Pulitzer Prize-winning “House of Lies” series for the Miami Herald, and an award-winning investigation into irregularities in public pensions for The Journal. He has been a member and faculty member of the National Institute of Computer-Aided Reporting since its inception 20 years ago, specializing in online knowledge and visualization, as well as demographics.
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The Louisiana Illuminator is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization whose project is to shed light on how decisions are made in Baton Rouge and how they impact the lives of Louisianans every day. Our in-depth investigations, reports, news reports, and observational assistance give citizens a sense of how state policies help or harm them and their neighbors across the state.
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