WASHINGTON — The number of road deaths in the United States rose in the first nine months of 2021 to 31,720, the government reported Tuesday, maintaining a record speed of increase in driving harmful to the coronavirus pandemic.

The estimated number of other people who died in car accidents between January and September 2021 is 12% higher than at the same time in 2020. This represents the highest cumulative percentage in a nine-month period since the Department of Transportation began recording fatal turn of knowledge of the destination in 1975.

The death toll stands at 31,720, the highest figure in nine months since 2006.

Federal knowledge from the department’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration showed that highway fatalities increased during the nine-month era in 38 states, leading western and southern states, such as Idaho, Nevada and Texas, and were robust in two states. The numbers declined in 10 states and the District of Columbia.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg pledged to do his thing and last week launched a new national strategy to buck the trend, which he calls crisis. grants under President Joe Biden’s new infrastructure law to incentivize states and localities to lower speed limits and adopt safer road designs, such as compromised motorcycles and bus lanes. increased lighting and crosswalks. The strategy also calls for the use of speed cameras, which the ministry says can provide a fairer application than police traffic stops.

Buttigieg also cited the benefits of protection under the Infrastructure Act through the creation of modes of choice for cars such as rail and public transport, “if only because all other modes of transport are safer. “

The NHTSA also plans to advance upcoming regulations to require automatic emergency braking on all new passenger cars and establish new criteria for car protection functionality with a focus on collision avoidance features, such as lane keeping assist, a company action schedule has not been established.

Deaths on the roads began to rise in 2019. La NHTSA blamed the pandemic for the accumulation of reckless driving behaviors, bringing up behavioral studies that appeared to be rushing and rides without seat belts being higher. Before 2019, the number of deaths had decreased for 3 consecutive years.

Road fatalities in the first nine months of the year have now risen nearly 33 percent over the past decade, and car protection advocates urge NHTSA to implement congressionally mandated protective rules, such as rear seat belt removal, that have been beyond its purview. years. Nearly 7,800 more people died from January to September 2021 compared to 2011 figures, according to government estimates.

“People make mistakes, but human mistakes don’t always have to be deadly. In a well-designed formula, safety measures ensure that human fallibility does not result in human deaths,” Buttigieg said Tuesday. they’re going to do it on U. S. roads. “The U. S. department has the National Highway Safety Strategy and the safe formula technique it’s taking. “

Jonathan Adkins, executive director of the Governors’ Road Safety Association, which represents state safety boards, described the latest numbers as a “nightmare,” but said the Biden administration appears to be taking the right on general protection patches.

“We want to do more than works. Traffic will have to be a component of the solution,” he said. “But we want to take a look at how we build the roads. We want to take a look at the total system.

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AP Auto reporter Tom Krisher in Detroit contributed to this report.

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