The US Is Counting Traffic Deaths Wrong
By emphasizing the number of people killed per mile rather than deaths per capita, traffic safety groups risk normalizing the factors that make American roads so deadly.
With about 40,000 road deaths every year, the US is a global outlier on automotive safety.
Photographer: Leonard Ortiz/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images
However you cut the data, Americans are disturbingly likely to die in a vehicle crash.
According to a new report published by the International Transport Forum, the transportation research arm of the OECD, the nearly 40,000 people killed on US roads in 2024 works out to almost 12 roadway deaths for every 100,000 inhabitants, more than twice as many as peer nations including Australia, the Czech Republic, Israel and South Korea. The US has become such a road safety outlier that the ITF now shares aggregated safety trends for the OECD both with and without the country included.