Covid-19 has dramatically changed everyone's lives more than we can imagine. Empty streets, highways, and transit systems were a visible effect of the pandemic on our daily lives. Despite how quiet our roads got at the onset of the pandemic, they also became more dangerous. To study the impact of the pandemic on accidents and their patterns, we have created heatmaps for three time periods, viz., before the pandemic(Feb'16 - Feb'20, during the pandemic(Feb'20 - Dec'20), and after the pandemic(Dec'20-Dec'21).
By observing the above heatmaps, we can conclude that accidents have declined during the pandemic due to the imposed lockdown restrictions but have risen more than ever following the lockdown in 2021. The Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported that traffic fatalities during the first half of 2021 increased by 18.4% since the first half of 2020. The estimated 20,160 deaths during the first half of last year are the highest since 2006.
Why might this be happening? It’s not clear why there have been more fatalities over the past two years. According to preliminary research by NHTSA, people who continued to drive during the pandemic may have engaged in riskier behavior, including speeding, failure to wear seat belts, and driving under the influence of alcohol or other drugs.