Despite 10-months of COVID restrictions curtailing travel, roadways are getting deadlier and speed is the factor.
“A number of our crashes are directly related to speed and speed that is inappropriate for the roadway they are on,” says Don Redman with the American Automobile Association talking about the spike in deadly accidents.
“I think you’re starting to see people growing impatient with traffic they weren’t used to for the past ten months,” Redman says. “Driving irritated, tailgating, excessive speeds, trying to zip around work zones, what have you.”
Redman puts it plainly: “People just need to return to what was our normal driving patterns of a year ago.”
Since the lifting of COVID restrictions, travel, whether for vacations or to and from work has picked up. So have accidents. The latest figures from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration show fatalities on roadways have spiked 8% since last year, a dramatic increase.
“I think it’s just a case of people having to readjust their driving behaviors,” he says. “To match the fact that we’re seeing more traffic on the roadway than in the past.”
Over 42,000 people have lost their lives on roadways in fatal accidents this year. That’s the largest number since 2007.
“We’ve simply asked people to back off on their speed and put away their phone,” Redman says citing distracted driving is making the chances of being involved in an accident go up almost exponentially.
“We just caution everyone to put down the phone put down anything that may be a distraction for you. That’s what we’re seeing, high rates of speed and being districted and the two of them together are just toxic.”