The 4% of drivers who started driving more during this period were largely young and male, the demographic statistically most likely to engage in risky driving behavior. C., et al., Self-Reported Risky Driving in Relation to Amount of Driving During the COVID-19 Pandemic (PDF, 148KB), AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, 2022). A February 2022 report found that the people who reduced their driving the most during the lockdown phase of the pandemic were disproportionately middle-age and female, a relatively safe group of drivers (Tefft, B. Research is starting to hint at some of the reasons for the initial jump in fatalities in 2020. Department of Transportation’s National Roadway Safety Strategy, unveiled in January, which highlights the need for more research into interventions against risky behavior ( U.S. The federal government is funding these efforts with the U.S. Around the world, psychologists are working to understand who is most at risk and why, studying everything from basic perceptual processing to cognitive biases to the way the environment can make matters better (or worse). They are persistent contributors to crash deaths and injuries, and the only question is to what level they’ll continue to kill. Strayer’s four horsemen aren’t going to disappear as pandemic stresses ease, though.
“People might be a little bit more impulsive, they’re a little bit less regulated, they might not be considering consequences.” “People’s brains are not perceiving information and processing emotion in the way that they did prior to the pandemic,” said Kira Mauseth, PhD, a clinical psychologist at Seattle University who studies disaster behavioral health. All, experts say, can be worsened by relentless cycles of pandemic stress. The rising fatalities seemed to be caused by what University of Utah cognitive neuroscientist David Strayer, PhD, calls the “four horsemen of death.” Together, they are speed, impairment, distraction, and fatigue, the human foibles behind more than 90% of vehicle crashes. They’re also uniquely American, as most other high-income countries have reported fewer traffic deaths since the pandemic began. These numbers represent a reversal of the decreasing trend in traffic deaths seen between 20, according to NHTSA data, and they are all the more striking considering that economic recessions like the one in 2020 typically reduce traffic fatalities. This was the biggest percentage jump in the year-to-year 9-month statistics ever recorded. The trend continued in the first nine months of 2021, with deaths rising 12% compared with the same period in 2020.
Though vehicle miles traveled decreased by 11% in the United States in 2020, traffic fatalities rose 6.8%, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). These Cannonball racers are extreme, but they are hardly alone in taking a riskier approach to the road during the pandemic. Drivers beat each other’s New York to LA records at least three times in 2020, averaging over 100 mph during their trips, with some reaching max speeds of 175 mph, according to Road & Track. These races, called Cannonball Runs, date back to the 1970s, but empty roads enabled audacious driving. In the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, when roads were eerily clear, an underground subculture of street racers did the furthest thing from staying at home: They began launching attempts to speed from New York to Los Angeles in record time.
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