Fatality Rate Rises 14% as Drivers Speed Through Sparse Traffic
- Fatalities per mile spiked amid March stay-home orders
- State police agencies crack down on speeding during pandemic
Vehicles drive in light traffic in this aerial photograph taken above Los Angeles, California, on May 1.
Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/BloombergThe Michigan State Police recently caught a driver barreling down Interstate 75 at 180 miles per hour. Maryland troopers cited seven motorists in a single day for topping 100 mph on the Capital Beltway surrounding Washington. And California’s Highway Patrol issued 87% more tickets to people driving at triple-digit speeds than they did a year ago.
Across the U.S., police say some drivers are treating freeways cleared out by stay-at-home directives as a license to accelerate. And that appears to be making the roads deadlier: The rate of traffic deaths per 100 million miles driven jumped 14% in March compared to the same month a year before, even as Americans drove nearly 19% fewer miles according to preliminary estimates from the National Safety Council.