We always expect to arrive safely at our destination when we get behind the wheel and put our key in the ignition. However, it only takes one negligent driver on the road to cause a devastating collision. Any one of the hundreds of thousands of car accidents yearly in Pennsylvania is more than just a number. These car accidents involve real people with real stories, and one of them could be you or a loved one. Let us take a closer look at the car accident statistics for Pennsylvania in recent years.
Increased Fatalities in 2023 and PennDot’s Plan for Change
Despite Pennsylvania traffic deaths declining in 2022, early estimates indicate that PA traffic deaths may have increased year-over-year. From January to March of 2023, traffic deaths rose a staggering 13.2%, from 234 in the first three months of 2022 to 265 in 2023.
To reduce future traffic deaths across PA, The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDot) and other state agencies created the 2022 Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP), a blueprint identifying three Priority Emphasis Areas (lane departure, impaired driving, and pedestrian crashes) and their proposed solutions. In addition, SHSP identified 15 Safety Focus Areas, such as speeding and aggressive driving, distracted driving, and intersection safety, and its plans to enact change to prevent future traffic deaths.
The U.S. DOT National Roadway Safety Strategy to Minimize Accident Deaths
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is taking a comprehensive approach to minimize car accident injuries and fatalities on U.S. roads, streets, and highways with its National Roadway Safety Strategy (NRSS). The U.S. DOT outlines this strategy with five objectives, including:
- Safer People. With people’s safety being NRSS’s core mission, one of its main objectives is to encourage safe and responsible driving and behavior on the road. Specifically, this includes encouraging drivers to wear seatbelts, not drink and drive, and drive at the speed limit for the safety of the driver and everyone else on the road.
- Safer Roads. Roadway design highly influences how people use roadways, and NRSS is helping to ensure safer roads through Proven Safety Countermeasures. These countermeasures include crosswalk visibility enhancements and increased medians for pedestrian safety, bicycle lanes to protect bikers from colliding with vehicles, and more rumble strips on two-way rural roads to help mitigate severe or fatal head-on collisions.
- Safer Vehicles. NRSS aims to make safety features on vehicles more available to the public to minimize the impact of crashes on drivers and passengers, such as seatbelt reminder systems and automatic braking.
- Safer Speeds. Through strategic roadway design, targeted education, outreach campaigns, and enforcement, another NRSS goal is to encourage safer speeds and prevent accidents due to speeding.
- Post-Crash Care. Unfortunately, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) sometimes reaches car accident victims when it is too late. To increase car accident survivability and help prevent more severe car accident injuries from becoming fatal, NRSS aims to make emergency and trauma care more available and expeditious. This proposed solution especially applies to rural and Tribal communities with limited EMS resources and longer response times.
This Safe System Approach is the guiding paradigm of the National Roadway Safety Strategy, with its ultimate goal of zero accident deaths nationwide. People can access the National Roadway Safety Strategy dashboard for updates on its implementation.
Accident Statistics
Pennsylvania Car Accident Statistics
From 2018 to 2020, Pennsylvania saw a drop in car accidents, followed by a sharp increase in 2021 and a slight decrease in 2022.
| Year | Crashes | Fatalities |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 115,908 | 1,179 |
| 2021 | 117,899 | 1,230 |
| 2020 | 104,472 | 1,129 |
| 2019 | 125,267 | 1,059 |
| 2018 | 128,420 | 1,190 |
The top three types of the total accidents statewide in 2022 were:
- Hit Fixed Object Crashes
- Single Vehicle Run-off-the-road Crashes
- Intersection Crashes
In addition, the top three types of accidents resulting in fatalities statewide in 2022 were:
- Impaired Driver Crashes
- Single Vehicle Run-off-the-road Crashes
- Lane Departure Crashes
Lancaster County Car Accident Statistics
In Lancaster County, our community saw the following accidents and fatalities:
| Year | Crashes | Fatalities |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 5,572 | 57 |
| 2021 | 5,625 | 73 |
| 2020 | 4,800 | 47 |
| 2019 | 5,957 | 44 |
| 2018 | 6,041 | 45 |
The top three types of total accidents in Lancaster County in 2022 were:
- Lane Departure Crashes
- Single Vehicle Run-off-the-road Crashes
- Intersection Crashes
Finally, the top three causes of accidents resulting in fatalities in Lancaster County in 2022 were:
- Single Vehicle Run-off-the-road Crashes
- Impaired Driver Crashes
- Lane Departure Crashes
Lancaster County Car Accident Attorneys Committed To Your Case
No matter how safe of a driver you are in Pennsylvania, a car accident could still happen at any time. As you are trying to recover from severe injuries in the aftermath, the last thing you should worry about is navigating the complex claims process. At WPH Law, our car accident attorneys take that burden off of you by thoroughly investigating your accident, handling all communication with the insurance companies, and helping secure maximum compensation for your injuries, damages, lost wages, and pain and suffering. Best of all, we never charge a fee as we work on your case, and we will only get paid once you do.
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