“Traffic deaths in the US were 6.7 percent lower in 2025 than in 2024, reaching the second-lowest death rate per mile traveled ever recorded,” reports The Doomslayer.
“With an estimated 36,640 traffic fatalities in 2025—a 6.7% decrease from 2024—the nation saw its second-lowest traffic fatality rate in recorded history at 1.10 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled,” notes the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.“Fatalities decreased in 39 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico in 2025. Preliminary Federal Highway Administration 2025 data shows that vehicle miles traveled had increased by about 29.8 billion miles, about 0.9%.”
By contrast, traffic deaths rose from 2020 to 2021.The motor vehicle fatality rate increased 7.1% in 2020, and 10.5% in 2021, before falling 0.3% in 2022. There were 3,230 fatalities in 2021, compared to only 2,967 fatalities in 2010.
Traffic deaths rose because police were less likely to stop drivers who violated traffic laws, in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death and the anti-police unrest that followed. So drivers were more likely to drive recklessly. “Police staffing levels in the U.S. significantly declined following George Floyd’s death in 2020, driven by a surge in officer retirements and resignations. Within the two years following the summer of 2020, nearly 80% of agencies reported increased resignations, retirements, or both. Data showed a nearly 45% surge in departures compared to the year before…Major cities such as Los Angeles (LAPD) reported having fewer officers. The decrease in personnel has been described as a “turnover crisis.”…Research indicates about 13.5% of surveyed police chiefs reported attempts to defund their departments, with a roughly 56.8% success rate in at least some reduction in funding.”
The rise in motor vehicle fatalities was especially sharp for black people, with “motor vehicle fatalities among blacks” soaring “36 percent in June–December 2020 versus the same period in 2019, compared with a 9 percent increase among the rest of the population.” “In the tumultuous first month of the racial reckoning,” that followed George Floyd’s death, “743 black people were killed in traffic fatalities, up from 478 in June 2019, a 55 percent increase.”
As the progressive website Vox noted about the increase in U.S. traffic deaths from 2020-2021:
According to a 2021 survey of over 1,000 police officers, nearly 60 percent said they were less likely to stop a vehicle for violating traffic laws than they were prior to 2020, when the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police inspired nationwide protests……traffic stops are decreasing while deaths are rising….Some experts…think there’s an obvious link. Enforcement efforts that are high-visibility and focused on safety are shown to reduce risky driving.
