According to early estimates from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, national traffic fatalities in the first nine months of 2021 rose approximately 12 percent over 2020.

In Pennsylvania, 2021 preliminary data shows deaths on roadways increased by as much as 10 percent, including increases in fatalities in speeding crashes, distracted driving crashes, crashes involving a 16- or 17-year-old driver, as well as unrestrained fatalities.

While fatalities in crashes involving impaired driving have remained relatively flat in recent years, data shows fatalities in crashes involving drinking drivers have been declining, while fatalities in crashes involving drugged drivers have been increasing.

“While we cannot definitively say what is causing fatalities to increase, we can definitively say that safety on our roadways is everyone’s responsibility,” said Pennsylvania Department of Transportation Acting Executive Deputy Secretary Melissa Batula. “Please slow down, pay attention, never drive impaired, and buckle up. Buckling up is the single most effective thing you can do to protect yourself and your loved ones in a crash.”

In 2020, it is estimated that 94 percent of unbelted occupants, or 305 people, who were killed in crashes while traveling in passenger vehicles, including cars, small trucks, vans, and SUVs, could have survived if they had been buckled up.

“We can all do our part to prevent crashes on Pennsylvania’s roadways,” said Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Robert Evanchick. “Please keep these important lifesaving laws in mind when you’re behind the wheel.”

PennDOT 2021 crash data is expected to be available by early June. All currently available data is publicly accessible online at PennDOT’s Pennsylvania Crash Information Tool.