Kansas and U.S. start 2024 with more traffic, but fewer traffic deaths. Why is that?

Kansans and Americans are driving more miles this year, but so far, they’re safer doing it.

In 2020, traffic deaths soared nationwide during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and since then, fatality rates have remained higher than pre-pandemic years.

But 2024 could see a return to pre-pandemic numbers. Despite traffic being on the rise in Kansas and the country, traffic deaths are down compared to 2023.

“(Traffic fatalities are) one of the worst things I’ve heard law enforcement say that they have to do,” said Chris Bortz, traffic safety manager for the Kansas Department of Transportation. “So just think about the additional people — when we have reduced fatalities — that are able to make it to a destination safely and therefore able to continue with their lives as normal.”

From January to March in 2024, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported 68 traffic fatalities in Kansas, while 87 were recorded in the same time span last year — a 22% decrease in fatalities.

The same can be said for the country as a whole: 285 fewer fatalities were recorded from the beginning months of 2023 and 2024 — from 8,935 to 8,650 deaths.

At the same time, the U.S. had a 4.7 billion mile uptick in vehicle miles traveled.

The NHTSA did not report state-by-state traffic in its early estimates for 2024, but Bortz said vehicle miles traveled increased slightly between January to May in 2023 and 2024.

Bortz said KDOT also reported a drop in traffic fatalities. From Jan. 1 to July 9, Kansas saw 152 traffic deaths — a 22.5% drop from the same time period last year.

Though KDOT and NHTSA’s reports are not parallel, both show that more miles are being traveled while fewer fatalities are occurring.

But it’s not clear why Kansas and the country are seeing fewer fatalities on the road.

The Center for Automotive Research, a national nonprofit group based in Michigan, researches issues and trends in the automotive industry, with the mission of informing and advising.

Changing human behavior behind the wheel is difficult and likely doesn’t explain the drop in fatalities, according to K. Venkatesh Prasad, senior vice president of research and chief innovation officer at CAR.

Prasad pointed to phones and other devices as large contributors in traffic accidents. According to the NHTSA, 3,308 people died due to distracted driving in 2022.

“We’ve been incentivized to respond to notifications as a instantaneous gratification comes with that,” Prasad said. “There’s a big awareness (of the danger), but still, behavior change is very very rare because incentives that come with this digital distraction are so strong.”

Prasad noted evolving vehicles as safety contributors.

“The vehicles (have) been getting smarter and more sophisticated in many ways,” he said.

But improved vehicles don’t lead to changing stats overnight, he said..

“It takes a long, long time for that shift to happen,” Prasad said. “At any given point in time, for every new vehicle, you see nine old vehicles … So it’s not likely the vehicles have suddenly gotten smarter this year.”

So what’s the reason for the fewer fatalities when miles traveled are up? It’s not clear.

“It’s pretty complex,” Prasad said.

While an exact reason is difficult to pin down, Bortz pointed to several safety initiatives started by the Kansas Department of Transportation as contributing factors, including the state’s Safety Corridor Pilot Program launched last year and efforts to expand the Drive to Zero Coalition.

The Safety Corridor project is a five-year plan to reduce accidents at identified trouble spots through public education, enhanced law enforcement and improved road engineering.

Drive to Zero is a Transportation Department program of traffic-safety education and advocacy.

“Over the last several years, we have increased the media buys that we’re doing across the state centered on either drunk driving, or everybody needs to wear their seat belts, or don’t drive distracted, and different things like that,” Bortz said.

Bortz encouraged drivers to obey those traffic laws to help ensure everybody arrives at their destination safely.

“It’s a shared responsibility,” he said.