Our Nation's Roadway Safety Crisis

Nearly 95% of people who die using our Nation's transportation networks are killed on our streets, roads, and highways. Roadway fatalities and the fatality rate declined consistently for 30 years, but progress has stalled over the past decade and went in the wrong direction in 2020 and 2021. There were  42,939 lives lost  on U.S. roads in 2021 - the largest number of fatalities since 2005. This is unacceptable.

In response, the U.S. Department of Transportation  National Roadway Safety Strategy (NRSS)  outlines the Department’s comprehensive approach to significantly reducing serious injuries and deaths on our Nation’s highways, roads, and streets. This is the first step in working toward an ambitious long-term goal of reaching zero roadway fatalities. 

Every driver, passenger, and pedestrian should be certain that they're going to arrive at their destination safely, every time.

This set of visualizations illustrates the significant impact of motor vehicle deaths in our communities. The information below uses a  national dataset of all fatal motor vehicle crashes  from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to document people who lost their lives on our roadways, including drivers, passengers, and people outside of vehicles who are walking, biking, and rolling. Each of the five visualizations below shows a different, interactive way to think about roadway safety:

• The maps comparing low-to-high values use light-to-dark sequential color ramps, in which the darker colors show higher values. Maps that do not use a sequential color ramp style include a description of the color ramp that is displayed.
• Every map has a legend located in the lower-left corner. The zoom and pan navigation controls are located in the lower-right corner of each map, and the option to expand the map view to full screen is located in the upper-right corner.
• Use the search bar located in the upper-left corner of each map to quickly search and zoom to an area of interest, or click the button above the navigation controls to zoom to your current location.
• Click on a feature in a map to display a pop-up with additional information.

Hotspots can show us the areas that have experienced a high concentration of fatal roadway crashes.

Use this map to explore roadway fatalities hotspots over the past half decade (five-years). Use the search bar or zoom in to a community to see more details and crash locations.

How does your county compare to the national average of roadway fatalities?

This map displays the concentration level of roadway fatalities by county (N = 3,143) compared to the national average based on the total number of fatalities between 2017 and 2021.

Explore the relationship between the average five-year Fatality Rate (per 100,000 people) and population distribution.

The maps below allow you to explore where the relationship between the fatality rate and population is most or least pronounced. It combines the two data patterns to show where they converge and where they diverge, all within a single map.

For this analysis, low population counties have a population of 50,000 people or less (N = 2,152). High population counties have a population greater than 50,000 people (N = 991).

Similar to the previous map, the map below compares the relationship between the average fatality rate and population for municipalities with at least 5,000 people.

For this analysis, low population areas have a population between 5,000 and 50,000 people (N = 3,971). High population areas have a population greater than 50,000 people (N = 786).

Of the communities in the top 20% of roadway fatalities, nearly two thirds (62%) are experiencing transportation disadvantage.

22% of all fatal crashes in Disadvantaged Communities resulted in the death of a pedestrian.

There are 84,122 census tracts in the U.S. This map shows the Disadvantaged Community census tracts (N = 21,813) with at least one roadway fatality reported between 2017 and 2021. A census tract is usually between 3,800 and 4,600 number of people, on average.

While we face a crisis on our roadways, we know many projects and programs are saving lives. This map shows where progress is being made in eliminating roadway deaths, and in some places over the course of several years.

This map displays the number of times between 2017 and 2021 that a municipality with a population of at least 5,000 people reported zero fatal crashes for at least one year.

The status quo is unacceptable, and it is preventable. We know it’s preventable because bold cities in the United States, and countries abroad, have achieved tremendous reductions in roadway deaths.

Future iterations of this analysis will explore how USDOT funding is addressing roadway safety.

We are committed to turning around the trend in traffic fatalities and serious injuries on our roadways.

Learn more about how USDOT is implementing the new priority actions outlined in the National Roadway Safety Strategy to move us closer to our zero deaths goal.

We are all working toward the same goal of eliminating fatalities and serious injuries.