Traffic Fatalities Up 10.5 Percent In 2021; FL Troopers To Crack Down

FLORIDA — Drivers traveling highways throughout the Southeast United States this week might want to watch their speed.

The Florida Department of Transportation, in collaboration with the Florida Highway Patrol and local law enforcement agencies, will participate in “Operation Southern Slow Down,” a joint effort with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the southeastern states of Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

State and local law enforcement agencies in all five states will be conducting a week-long speed enforcement awareness campaign from July 18 to 23.

The mission of the campaign, formerly called “Operation Southern Shield," is to save lives and prevent reckless driving and speeding in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee, according to a news release from the Florida Highway Patrol.

State troopers and local law enforcement officers will target drivers on interstates and state highways in these five states for the entire week, a team effort to stop the recent increase in drivers traveling at speeds well above the legal limit, according to a news release.

The operation was launched in 2017 during summer, the peak travel season, when the NHTSA noticed a trend in drivers violating highway speed limits, which vary from 60 mph on state roads to 65 mph on interstates in urban areas to 70 mph, according to the Florida Department of Transportation.

Then, once the coronavirus pandemic was declared in early 2020 and people around the country began to self-isolate, leaving the interstates nearly empty, average driving speeds on interstates reached an all-time high, according to Carmen Hayes, administrator of Region 4 for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Last year, more people died on U.S. roadways than any year since 2005, according to data released by the NHTSA in May.

The administration estimates that 42,915 people died in traffic crashes last year, a 10.5 percent increase from the 38,824 fatalities in 2020.

The projection is the largest annual percentage increase in the Fatality Analysis Reporting System’s history. The deaths include pedestrians, cyclists and others who may have died during a crash.

Fatalities from multi-vehicle crashes and those on urban roadways both rose 16 percent, according to the agency, the largest year-over-year increases for incident-specific data.

Other notable increases included:

• Fatalities of those 65 years or older were up 14 percent.
• Pedestrian deaths were up 13 percent.
• Fatalities in crashes involving at least one large truck were up 13 percent.
• Fatalities in multi-vehicle crashes were up 16 percent.
• Fatalities on urban roads were up 16 percent.
• Daytime fatalities were up 11 percent.
• Motorcyclist fatalities were up 9 percent.
• Bicyclist fatalities were up 5 percent.
• Fatalities in speeding-related crashes were up 5 percent.
• Fatalities in crashes involving alcohol were up 5 percent.

During an announcement in May, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called it “a crisis on America’s roadways that we must address together" and said the Biden administration is taking “critical steps to help reverse this devastating trend,” citing the agency’s previously announced National Roadway Safety Strategy and Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

The United States Department of Transportation National Roadway Safety Strategy outlines the Department’s comprehensive approach to significantly reducing serious injuries and deaths on the nation’s highways, roads, and streets, the first step in working toward an ambitious long-term goal of reaching zero roadway fatalities.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law places a strong emphasis on improving safety and includes the new Safe Streets and Roads for All grant program, the first of its kind program, investing up to $6 billion over five years to fund local efforts to reduce roadway crashes and fatalities.

“This crisis on our roads is urgent and preventable,” said Steven Cliff, the NHTSA’s deputy administrator. “We will redouble our safety efforts, and we need everyone – state and local governments, safety advocates, automakers, and drivers – to join us. All of our lives depend on it.”

The NHTSA said traffic deaths rose in 2021 in 44 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

The administration cited two reasons for the increase: higher driving speeds and an increase in miles driven by Americans.

The Federal Highway Administration said miles traveled in 2021 increased by about 325 billion miles, or about 11.2 percent, compared with 2020.

Analysts speculate that one of the reasons is people felt safer traveling by vehicle during the pandemic than flying in close quarters on commercial airlines.

In Florida, troopers will be paying special attention to speeders along the state's major interstates: Interstates 75, 10 and 95. In addition to citing drivers for speeding, the highway patrol will be looking for drivers violating the state's mandatory seatbelt law.

The administration said a failure to wear seatbelts is the major cause of significant injuries and fatalities in crashes.