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Motor vehicle fatalities fell a sizable 7% in 2025, an acceleration of steady downward progress following sharp pandemic increases, preliminary findings from NHTSA suggest. At the same time, the agency added more color to 2024 results, including a 4% reduction in alcohol-impaired driving fatalities, in line with the overall decline. So a stable 30% of total motor vehicle crash deaths in 2024 were caused in part by a driver impaired by alcohol, the federal agency reported this month. That's in line with figures from a decade ago, though still well above lows seen before the pandemic. Encouragingly, preliminary 2025 figures suggest the overall rate of traffic deaths per miles traveled returned to historic lows. Alcohol Totals Down 13% from 2021, Still Well Above 2019 In 2024, almost 500 fewer individuals lost their lives in alcohol-impaired motor vehicle crashes compared to 2023, NHTSA reported. The 3.9% drop to 11,904 fatalities was the third year in a row of declines, now down by almost 1,700 since the record high in 2021, a 12.5% decline in all. Yet the total number of alcohol-impaired-driving fatalities remains above 2019 by 17% and 1,700 deaths.NHTSA counted 39,254 total motor vehicle fatalities in 2024, down 4.3%. The agency linked 30.3% of them to an alcohol-impaired driver. That's 1.5 points below the 31.8% of deaths partly attributable to alcohol impairment in 2022 and slightly below figures from 2011-2014. But in the lead up to the pandemic, from 2015-2019, alcohol-impairment fell below 30% of total crash deaths, reaching a low of 28% in 2019.Put in the context of the amount of miles Americans traveled on roads and highways in 2024, the rate of alcohol-impaired-driving fatalities declined even more steeply in the last couple of years. From a high of 0.43 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT), the alcohol-impaired rate fell another 0.2 points to 0.36 per 100 mil VMT in 2024, -5.3% in one year. That's just slightly above the 0.33-0.35 range tracked every year between 2010-2018, though still above the 0.31 rate seen in 2019.Impairment by Vehicle Type; Common Risk Factors The number of alcohol-impaired drivers involved in fatal motor vehicle crashes declined by 3% to 11,367, NHTSA reported. The agency found declines among drivers of all but one vehicle type, large trucks, which increased substantially in 2024 compared to 2023. But there were still comparatively very few drivers of large trucks involved in fatal crashes who are found to be alcohol-impaired: just 224, 4% of all large truck drivers involved in fatal crashes.Alcohol impairment is far more likely to be a contributor to crashes among drivers of other vehicles, especially passenger cars, motorcycles and pick-ups. After a decline of 5% compared to 2023, the 4,239 alcohol-impaired drivers of passenger cars who were involved in fatal crashes in 2024 still represented 37% of all alcohol-impaired drivers and 25% of all passenger car drivers involved in fatal crashes. Alcohol impairment was also found among 25% of motorcycle drivers and 22% of pick-up truck drivers involved in fatal crashes.Of some 42,000 drivers of passenger vehicles involved in fatal traffic crashes, 43% were alcohol-impaired, speeding or unrestrained (not wearing a seatbelt), the same as it was in 2023. Over half of the alcohol-impaired drivers involved in fatal crashes also exhibited at least one of these two other common risk factors. NHTSA estimates that just 8.2% of traffic fatalities are linked to distracted driving, down a slightly slower 2.3% in 2024. Note too that federal data still does not track the involvement of other forms of intoxication.State Data: the Good Get Better, the Bad Get Worse The average 30% of all motor vehicle crash deaths attributable to alcohol impairment in the US is driven up by a couple of large states where the figure is higher, NHTSA data shows. There are more fatal crashes overall and more caused in part by alcohol impairment in Texas than any other state, where 40% of traffic fatalities involved alcohol in 2024. And in California, just over a third of all crash deaths involved alcohol impairment.Most states, 32 of them including DC and Puerto Rico, fall below the US average. That includes Florida, the state with the third highest number of fatal crashes, but where just under a quarter of them can be attributable to alcohol impairment, the sixth-lowest. And Florida saw a large 9% drop in alcohol-impaired-driving fatalities in 2024. There are 5 other states where less than 25% of crash deaths can be linked to alcohol impairment (AK, MS, MN, GA, KY), and another 5 where the figure falls between 25% and 26% (IN, DE, LA, AR, PA). Notably, the share of total traffic fatalities tied to alcohol impairment declined in all but 2 of these 11 states in 2024. The absolute number of alcohol-impaired fatalities declined in 9 of these states and by double digits in 7.So in general, states that already outperform the US average tended to see greater improvement in these metrics, while states where alcohol-impaired-driving fatalities are more common saw the opposite. Among the 10 states with the highest percentage of traffic fatalities attributable to alcohol impairment (VT, NJ, TX, SC, OH, RI, MT, OK, KS, AZ), that share increased in all but one, South Carolina. Five of these bottom 10 states saw total alcohol-impaired-driving deaths increase in 2024, according to NHTSA.Early 2025 Data Puts Total Traffic Deaths Per Miles Traveled Back at Record Lows A preliminary estimate of traffic fatalities in 2025 suggests the largest single-year drop in over a decade. The number of individuals who died in crashes last year declined 6.7%, NHTSA estimates, to 36,640, the smallest number since before the pandemic. That represents 1.1 fatalities per 100 mil VMT, tied with 2011 and 2013 for the second-lowest rate on record, behind only 2014 at 1.08. In a year, NHTSA will finalize this data, including figures showing whether declines in risky drinking behaviors helped drive these encouraging results.Cheers,

NHTSA: 4% Dip in Alcohol-Impaired Traffic Deaths Precedes Broader Declines in 2025

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