Virginia Sees Increase in Fatal Teen Crashes During Pandemic
With fewer drivers commuting during the coronavirus pandemic, Virginia has had a decrease in car crashes among all age groups. Despite this fact, the number of fatal car crashes involving teens has increased so far this year.
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How has the pandemic affected collisions?
By mid-October of this year, 55 people died in teen driver-related crashes in Virginia, according to AAA. Between 2015 and 2019, an average of 51 people died annually during this same time period.
This increase in deaths is both disheartening and unexpected since the number of crashes involving teen drivers in 2020 dropped to 9,971. This number is far below the annual average of 14,445 teen-involved collisions that took place between 2015 and 2019.
Teens are sadly not the only Virginians who experienced a rise in fatalities despite having fewer collisions. Each age group followed this trend, even though many drivers were working from home and didn’t have to commute to work.
In total, Virginia had 45 percent fewer car crashes by June of 2020. However, drivers also engaged in riskier behaviors on the road. People who were speeding and not wearing their seatbelts got into 78 percent more fatal collisions in 2020 than they did in 2019.
Unfortunately, Virginia is not the only state that has seen a spike in traffic-related fatalities. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has predicted that the U.S. had a 1.25 traffic fatality rate during the first half of 2020. This would be a sharp growth from the 1.06 rate that the U.S. had during the same timeframe in 2019.
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To prevent the number of fatalities from increasing even more, make sure that you continue to practice safe driving behaviors and remind the teens in your family to do the same.
Amanda Drago lives in West Chester, Ohio with her wonderful family, which includes her adorable dog, Coco. Amanda recently graduated from Miami University with degrees in both marketing and creative writing. However, if she was ever forced to change career paths, she imagines that she would train dogs for movies. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, writing, and watching Netflix. She also has a special place in her heart for theatre and purchases tickets to as many shows as she can. See more articles by Amanda.