Seven thousand seven hundred and seventy people died on American roads in the first three months of this year. That is 4.3 percent fewer than the same months last year, and it is the sixteenth consecutive quarterly decline - a run stretching back to the spring of 2022 [1].
The rate is the part that makes it solid rather than lucky. Deaths per hundred million vehicle miles came in at 0.99 - the second-lowest first quarter in American history, against an all-time record of 0.98 [1].
That distinction matters because of what happened to the denominator. Americans drove 11.1 billion more miles than in the same quarter last year, a 1.4 percent increase [1]. The deaths fell while the exposure rose, which is the strong version of this statistic rather than the weak one.
Thirty states plus Puerto Rico recorded declines. Eighteen states and the District of Columbia recorded increases [1].
Mark Schieldrop of AAA Northeast called it 'an incredibly positive sign' [1].
One number in the same data went the other way, and it belongs here. Bicyclist deaths rose 4 percent in 2025, to 1,148 - near a forty-year high [2].
Cars have got markedly safer for the people inside them. The record for everyone else on the road is a different and less encouraging line on the same chart.
