Car accidents happen more often than many people realize and they take far more lives than a lot of people would guess. Just how many people did we lose last year?
It’s still relatively early in 2020, so the full reports are not out yet. However, the National Safety Council does have some preliminary estimates. According to these sources, they think that 38,800 people passed away in motor vehicle accidents.
This takes into account all types of accidents. Some people were drivers in passenger cars. Others were riding with them. Still others were on motorcycles or in large trucks. Some rode bikes or got hit on foot. Any deadly accident involving a motor vehicle, regardless of fault, factors into this total.
Do you feel a bit stunned to see how many people died? Many American colleges do not have a student population that exceeds 38,000. It would be a mass tragedy if everyone passed away in some type of accident, but that’s the type of tragedy we have on the roadways every year, and it largely flies under the radar.
One thing to note is that these deaths are, at least, trending downward. Between 2017 and 2018, the number of deaths fell by 2%. Between 2018 and 2019, that happened again. If the trend holds, we’ll still see roughly 38,000 fatalities in 2020, but it will not be quite as many as the year before. Only time will tell.
Remember that for every deadly accident, there are numerous accidents leading to injuries. If you get injured, you need to know what legal options you have.
