Dive Brief:
- Traffic deaths in the U.S. declined 6.7% between 2024 and 2025, according to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimate published Wednesday. A total of 36,640 fatalities occurred in 2025, compared to 39,254 in 2024.
- Last year’s traffic fatality rate of 1.10 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled was the lowest since 2014. Last year’s fatality rate was 1.19 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled.
- Overall traffic deaths returned to levels not seen since 2019, marking the fourth straight year of decline beginning in 2022.
Dive Insight:
Traffic fatalities began to soar with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. A 2024 AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety report found that speeding, distracted driving and aggressive driving accounted for tens of thousands of deaths each year.
The NHTSA and the U.S. Department of Transportation credited the Trump administration for improving traffic safety. “In the past year alone, we’ve partnered with our incredible law enforcement officers to get dangerous foreign truck drivers off the roads and educate the public about the dangers of distracted driving, drunk driving, and driving without a seat belt,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement.
The numbers show that traffic fatalities began to decline in 2022 during the Biden administration.
U.S. traffic fatalities 2019-2025
While most states recorded lower traffic deaths, fatalities increased in nine: Colorado, Hawai’i, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Vermont, and Wyoming.
The NHTSA also released final numbers for 2024 vehicle crashes, showing that nearly half of vehicle occupants who died were not wearing seat belts, where seat belt use was known.
Pedestrian and cyclist deaths decreased by 3.9% and 6% respectively in 2024 over the prior year, according to NHTSA data.
