Car crash deaths fall nationwide, but in Kansas City they're 'destroying our communities'

No one expects to die violently when they get in a car or go for a walk, but that nightmare took the life of someone in Kansas City almost twice a week in 2023. And while the death toll eased some nationwide, crossing the street is as dangerous as it’s been in decades.
About 100 Americans who woke up this morning will be dead by day’s end, crushed in steel, or tossed across a roadway. It’s like an airliner crashing every single day.

“It's friends, its families, its neighbors, it's coworkers,” said Russ Martin, Senior Director of Policy and Government Relations at the Governor’s Highway Safety Association.

Bad habits from the pandemic are driving up the death toll. Traffic fatalities had been trending down for decades, despite there being more people on the road logging more miles year by year.

The rates fluctuated, but the pandemic brought a 16-year high in 2021 — about 42,915 people, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The following year was almost as bad: there were only 120 fewer deaths in 2022.

The 2021 jump in roadway deaths was even sharper in Kansas City, where 103 people died on streets and highways that year. That was the highest number in at least three decades (and more than double the number killed in 2014).