More Blacks and Hispanics die per mile travelled in traffic accidents

The United States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration calculated that close to 43,000 people died in motor-vehicle related crashes in the country in 2021.

The death toll is seen as “the highest number of fatalities since 2005 and the largest annual percentage increase [10.5 percent] in the Fatality Analysis Reporting System’s history.”

“Drivers struck and killed an estimated 7,485 people on foot in 2021 – the most pedestrian deaths in a single year in four decades and an average of 20 deaths every day,” according to a new estimate released by the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA).

A new study reveals, “this worsening and preventable public health problem” affects certain populations more than others.

The study is a collaboration between Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

According to the authors, “fatality rates per 100 million miles travelled are systematically higher for Black and Hispanic Americans for all modes and notably higher for vulnerable modes [such as cycling and walking].”

“Black Americans had the highest traffic fatality rate per mile travelled and across all modes, followed by Hispanics, whites and Asians,” the news release notes. “These disparities were particularly stark for walking and cycling, and during evening hours.”

The authors write that “disparities in traffic fatalities by race/ethnicity would be consistent with a broader transportation system that exhibits racial bias, from the effects of road placement to underinvestment in alternative modes and transit, to disproportionate traffic stops, to passenger‒driver pairing in ride-hail applications, and to potential bias in the travel demand models used to forecast impacts of investments.”

According to the researchers, these findings may also point to structural racism within the US transportation system.

“We have created a system where walking and cycling are more dangerous than driving, and where Black and Hispanic Americans are at greater risk of fatality per mile travelled than White Americans,” says study corresponding author Matthew Raifman, a doctoral candidate at BUSPH. 

“It’s important to consider these disparities in traffic fatalities within the context of a transport system that suffers from racial bias—from the placement of roads, to traffic stops, to the way that ride-hail applications pair riders with drivers.”

“Our results strengthen the case for investing resources in communities of colour facing the highest traffic fatality risks,” says study coauthor Ernani Choma, a research fellow in the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard Chan School, and who contributed equally to the paper.

Raifman and Choma went over 2017 US traffic fatality and household travel data, and evaluated race/ethnicity differences in travel activity by mode, distance, time of day, and urban area.

They found that “Regardless of race/ethnicity group, estimates of fatality rate were highest for walking, then cycling, and then light-duty vehicles.”

They also wrote that “A clear and consistent pattern of disparity in fatality rate per mile travelled by race/ethnicity emerges from the analysis. Regardless of mode, darkness, or urbanicity, Black Americans had the highest fatality rates per mile travelled. This was followed by Hispanics, who typically had higher fatality rates than Whites. By contrast, Asian Americans had fatality rates lower than Whites for all modes in all 3 situations considered.”

The research also revealed that “The fatality rate per mile travelled for non-Hispanic Black Americans was 4.5 times higher while cycling; 2.2 times higher while walking; and 1.8 times higher while an occupant was in a light-duty vehicle than for white Americans. A similar pattern was observed for Hispanic Americans for cycling and walking, albeit attenuated.”

During evening hours, “race/ethnicity disparities appear to be exacerbated for walking,” the authors observed. “The estimated fatality rate of non-Hispanic Black Americans walking rose to 3.4 times that of White Americans.” There also was a similar pattern of increased fatality risk for Hispanic Americans walking during darkness as for white, “although not as severe.”

The authors cite another study that demonstrates between 2015-2019 all-mode traffic fatalities were “higher for American Indian [Native American] and Black Americans than for White and were lowest for Asian Americans.”

The researchers suggest that their findings may be of particular interest for “implementing health impact assessments that incorporate traffic fatality rates. They say that their research provides “potential evidence of structural racism in the safety of the transportation sector meriting further causal analysis.”

They believe that “the findings are suggestive of the need to prioritise road safety for Black and Hispanic Americans, especially vulnerable road users,” as well as being populations that could benefit most from increased outdoor physical activity such as walking and cycling which would improve their wellbeing considerably.

“We know that chronic diseases, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, disproportionately affect Black and Hispanic Americans and can be improved through increased physical activity,” says Choma.

“But each time a Black American takes a one-mile cycling trip, the fatality risk is 4.5 times the risk of a White American. Policy decisions could be made to reduce these disparities, so that Black Americans are able to safely and equitably enjoy the health benefits of cycling.”

According to the news release, “the researchers hope that future studies explore the root causes of these disparities and examine this data at the state and local levels, where infrastructure decisions and investments are usually made. The current findings also come at a time of opportunity,” Raifman says.

“President Biden recently signed into law the  Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which sends billions to states and localities to improve roadway safety,” Raifman explains.

“Addressing disparities in protected bike lane infrastructure, improving road crossings and prioritising pedestrian safety, and enforcing red light violations and speeding are just a few potential interventions to consider.”