Impacts of COVID-19 on Motor Vehicle Crash Frequency and Severity by Functional Classification and Land Use Context

Abstract

Reduced traffic exposure due to COVID-19 lockdowns may have resulted in changes to both the frequency and severity of motor vehicle crashes. In order to better understand the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on traffic safety outcomes in US DOT Region 6, we explored the role of vehicle, user, and built environment factors on fatalities, injuries, and total crashes before and during COVID-19 lockdowns in Oklahoma and Texas. Findings suggest that while crash counts in Region 6 were 45%-50% lower during the COVID-19 lockdowns than the previous five-year averages, crashes were more severe. Fatal pedestrian crash counts decreased 3.9% during COVID-19 and fatal bicyclist crash counts increased 22.0%. These Region 6 outcomes were worse than the US as a whole. COVID-19 crashes were more likely single-vehicle fixed-object or rollover crashes involving unsafe speeds. In Texas, suburban areas saw the most crashes before and during COVID-19. Rural Texas crashes were most likely to result in a serious or fatal injury, and that likelihood got worse during the COVID-19 lockdowns.

Keywords

• traffic safety
• covid-19
• resilience
• functional classification
• land use