Roadway Deaths on the Rise in Texas

In 2022, the number of fatal deaths has been on the rise in many states across the U.S., including Texas. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (“NHTSA”), there were 9,650 roadway deaths between January 2022 and March 2022, 625 more than those killed in 2021. This was the highest January to March fatality number since 2002, which suggests a dangerous potential trend in roadway safety. Though modern, new vehicles on the road today are much safer than they were twenty years ago, there has not been a significant decline in roadway deaths to correlate to the general improvement of vehicle safety.

According to the Texas Department of Transportation, approximately 10 people die daily from car crashes on Texas roads. For the last 21 years, TxDOT provides that there have been more than 75,000 deaths from fatal car crashes. During the height of the pandemic in 2020, the death rate climbed to more than 11 deaths per day, even though daily traffic volume had dropped by more than half (50%). According to NHTSA, the current national fatality rate is 1.27 deaths per one million miles of travel, the highest that it has been since 2007. So far in Texas, February has been the deadliest year of the month, with the fatality rate up 15.7% from 2021.

If you or someone you know has been injured or killed by another’s negligence, or injured or killed as a result of what you believe to be product failure or negligence at the workplace, please contact the office of Ben Agosto III at Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Agosto, Aziz & Stogner, at (713) 222-7211; toll-free at 1-800-594-4884; or by email at [email protected].