"The National Safety Council recently estimated that U.S. traffic deaths plummeted by nearly 5,000 between 2024 and 2025 - a 12-percent drop, and the largest single-year decline since at least 1999. That estimate still means that 37,810 people lost their lives in car crashes last year - a horrifying number, but the lowest one published by NSC since 2019."
"NSC isn't an official government agency, even though some advocates regard its fatality estimates as more reflective of the true horror of America's roadway crisis when compared to the estimates published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That's because NHTSA currently excludes both crash fatalities that occur on places like parking lots, driveways, and private roads, as well as crash-related fatalities that occur more than single month after the collision itself."
"NSC bases its estimate on official death certificates compiled by the National Center of Health Statistics. However, that data takes a while to clean up, and last year its initial estimate deviated 4.4 percent from the final tally - the largest discrepancy since 2002."
The National Safety Council estimates U.S. traffic deaths fell by nearly 5,000 between 2024 and 2025, representing a 12-percent decline and the largest single-year drop since 1999. While 37,810 people died in car crashes last year—the lowest figure since 2019—this remains unacceptably high. The NSC's estimates differ from official government data because they include fatalities on private roads and parking lots, plus deaths occurring up to one year after crashes, whereas the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration uses narrower criteria. NSC bases estimates on death certificates from the National Center of Health Statistics, though this data requires cleanup time and showed a 4.4-percent initial discrepancy last year. Understanding the causes of this decline and sustaining downward trends requires further investigation.
Read at Streetsblog
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