Traffic deaths have fallen by more than 3% this year, but are still higher than pre-Covid-19 levels.

Traffic deaths in the United States fell by 3.2% in the first three months of 2024 — the lowest number since the same period in 2020 — but crash deaths remain sharply above pre-coronavirus levels.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimated Monday that 8,650 people were killed in traffic crashes through March 31 of this year, which is still well above the 7,901 people killed in the first three months of 2020. Still high but declining for two years Consecutive.

U.S. traffic fatalities fell 3.6% in 2023, the second straight annual decline, but were still well above pre-pandemic levels, auto safety regulators said Monday.

Deaths are still well above the 36,355 people killed in 2019. In that time, traffic fatalities have declined for three straight years. The death rate fell in the first quarter but remained higher over the three-month period in any pre-pandemic year since 2008.

As U.S. roads became less congested during the COVID-19 pandemic, some motorists saw police as less likely to issue tickets, which likely led to more risky behavior on the roads, experts said.

Traffic deaths in the United States jumped 10.5% in 2021 to 42,915, the highest number of deaths on American roads in a single year since 2005.

In 2022, the number of pedestrians killed rose 0.7% to 7,522, the most since 1981. The number of cyclists killed rose 13% to 1,105 in 2022, the most since at least 1980.

—David Shepardson, Reuters