Update to Special Reports on Traffic Safety during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency: Third Quarter Data: Third Quarter Data [Traffic Safety Facts]

NHTSA · 2021 · ROSA P / United States. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Office of Behavioral Safety Research

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Summary

This research note from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) updates previous findings on traffic safety during the COVID-19 public health emergency, focusing specifically on data from the third quarter (Q3) of 2020. The study was motivated by earlier reports indicating that while total crash fatalities declined due to reduced travel, the fatality rate per vehicle mile traveled increased significantly. This discrepancy suggested that drivers remaining on the roads were engaging in riskier behaviors, prompting NHTSA to examine changes in speeding, seat belt use, and substance impairment to inform countermeasures. The analysis utilized multiple data sources to assess travel patterns and risky behaviors. Travel volume and staying-at-home rates were derived from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ interactive dashboard. Speed data were analyzed using the Federal Highway Administration’s National Performance Management Research Data Set (NPMRDS). To evaluate seat belt use and substance prevalence, NHTSA examined cases of seriously or fatally injured road users from five participating trauma centers in North Carolina, Florida, Maryland, and Massachusetts. Data collection spanned from late 2019 through September 2020, allowing for comparisons between a pre-emergency period and two periods during the emergency. Additionally, retail sales data for alcohol and marijuana were reviewed to contextualize consumption trends. The findings indicate that risky behaviors observed in Q2 persisted into Q3. Travel volumes remained approximately 35% lower than in 2019, with a higher percentage of people staying home. However, ejection rates, a proxy for seat belt non-use, remained elevated throughout Q3 compared to 2019 levels. Analysis of trauma center data revealed a significant decrease in seat belt use among drivers and passengers during the early phase of the emergency, though rates showed a slight, non-significant rebound in the later period. Crucially, individuals who tested positive for drugs or alcohol were significantly less likely to wear seat belts than those who tested negative. Speed data showed that urban roadway speeds remained higher in 2020 than in 2019 across most percentiles, while rural roads exhibited greater speed dispersion, increasing the potential for traffic conflicts. Substance prevalence among injured road users remained high; over 60% of drivers tested positive for at least one drug category, with significant increases in alcohol, cannabinoid, and opioid presence compared to pre-emergency levels. High blood alcohol concentrations (.15+ g/dL) also increased significantly. These trends aligned with reported increases in alcohol and marijuana sales. The significance of these findings lies in confirming that reduced traffic volume did not mitigate the severity of crashes, as evidenced by the rising fatality rate and persistent risky behaviors. The data highlight a critical intersection between substance impairment and lack of occupant protection, suggesting that impaired drivers are also less likely to use seat belts. These insights underscore the need for targeted safety interventions addressing speeding, seat belt compliance, and impaired driving to address the evolving traffic safety landscape during the public health emergency.

Key finding

Drug prevalence among seriously and fatally injured road users remained significantly elevated in the third quarter of 2020, with over 60% testing positive for at least one drug category, and seat belt use was significantly lower for those who tested positive for substances.

Methodology

dataset

Sample size: 4057

Provenance

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Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.

Topics

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• incidence prevalence
• fatality injury trends
• seat belt use

Information type

What kind of knowledge this paper contributes, grouped by family — independent of topic (what it is about) and method (how it was studied).

• Empirical Findings: observational prevalence, crash risk outcomes
• Methodological Resource: dataset resource