Georgia Injury Law Blog
While there have been many theories for the disturbing rise in auto accident wrongful deaths across the country, one under examined factor is now under the scanner. Experts believe that a drop in police enforcement since just before the pandemic is possibly partly responsible for a spike in car accident deaths.
Car accident deaths in 2022 were as much as 18% higher than the numbers in 2019. They have continued to increase, spiking even during the pandemic when vehicular traffic volumes were at all time lows. During a time when American roads should have been safest, they were actually even more dangerous than before the pandemic with normal traffic volumes. This phenomenon was also uniquely American. Most Western countries did not report increases in car accident deaths during the pandemic. Many, in fact, actually saw a drop in car accident rates as a result of lockdowns and lower traffic volumes.
There have been a number of theories that have been espoused as reasons for the increase in car accident deaths in the United States. From an increase in speeding to larger volumes of distracted drivers, experts believe that a combination of factors has led to a spike in the number of people being killed in car accidents. However, one particular factor has not received a lot of attention and NPR recently addressed this. The report by NPR says that a drop in police enforcement across the country is at least partly responsible for the spike in car accident deaths.