As many people are staying home to respect social distancing and isolation practices, public roads and the way people drive on them have shifted.
In many states, the number of total accidents has decreased. This is surely a welcoming sign, but traffic accidents during COVID-19 are still a significant concern.
The reason for this is simple; other drivers are behaving more dangerously. Open roads make many drivers feel invincible, giving them the encouragement to push the limits.
This means that road safety has not necessarily improved despite coronavirus keeping many people at home.
To help you understand why this is and why you need to be particularly cautious while driving, we'll take a look at COVID-19's impact on road safety below.
Fewer Drivers
One thing you've likely noticed is that fewer drivers are on the road during the current pandemic.
A side effect of the nationwide stay-at-home order is that people are leaving their houses far less frequently than they normally would. This leads to significantly fewer cars on the road at any given time.
You might think that fewer cars on the road would mean that there are also fewer accidents. This is true because people are less inclined to go for a drive with so much emphasis on staying home. However, fewer drivers out and about do not correlate to a decrease in car crash rates.
There are many other things to look out for while driving and you increase your risk of experiencing a deadly car crash when you fall victim to the idea that fewer cars on the road mean that your actions have no consequence.
With fewer drivers on the road, the number of car crashes that occur has naturally gone down, but it doesn't necessarily mean that car crash rates are plummeting.
Instead, car crash rates are higher now than they were before COVID-19 affecting our everyday lives. This is because people are driving distractedly and recklessly.
More Distracted Driving
Of the people that do drive, more of them are doing so distracted. With fewer cars on the road, it can feel as though you have less to worry about as a driver.
Most of the time, driving entails watching for dangerous movements being made by other vehicles. With fewer cars surrounding you when driving during the current pandemic, you might feel a false sense of security.
This can lead to the idea that you don't have to pay as much attention to the road as you previously did. As a result, you may excuse unsafe behavior like putting on makeup or scrolling through a social media app from behind the wheel.
No matter what, it is never safe to engage in behavior that would be considered distracted driving. That includes situations when your car is the only one for several miles.
Increased Reckless Driving
Another problem is a significant increase in reckless driving.
Reckless driving rates have increased throughout the current pandemic and it has a lot to do with the aforementioned fact that there are fewer cars on the road. People seem to have developed a need for speed now that traffic jams are less frequent.
With an open road ahead of you and little to no other cars to pay attention to, it is easy to slip into the mindset of thinking that speeding is harmless. But this could not be further from the truth as speeding is a major contributing factor to death rates resulting from car crashes.
We will touch on the heightened number of death rates resulting from car crashes in a moment, but something to always keep in mind is that traffic laws exist for a reason.
While traffic safety regulations are put in place for the sake of protecting drivers and passengers on the road, the majority of traffic laws are dictated by road design.
Speed limits are intentionally put in place to ensure that cars don't travel faster than the road safely allows. A speed limit of 60 miles per hour is calculated by professionals and they are always enforced by law, whether a pandemic is sweeping the world by storm or not.
Deadlier Crashes
While there may be fewer crashes overall, accidents are still happening, and the crashes that do happen tend to be deadlier.
The combination of increases in distracted behavior, reckless driving, and fewer people on the road leads to situations where car crashes end up being more severe.
Roadways with fewer cars can cause drivers to feel more secure while coasting. The lack of attention needing to be focused on the road can cause you to get bored and turn to a distraction like your smartphone.
Additionally, you might pick up on the fact that there seems to be less law enforcement surrounding traffic safety laws.
While traffic safety laws are incredibly important, they might not be on the list of top priorities in certain areas. This means fewer officers are patrolling the roadways, which allows people to get away with their poor choices of distracted and reckless driving.
All of these elements make drivers more confident that they won't get caught breaking traffic safety laws, so they partake in unsafe driving patterns.
When you are distracted or reckless while driving, you don't have much time to correct your behavior before it's too late to avoid an accident.
Even though there are fewer cars on the road, there are still plenty of other road hazards to watch for like guardrails or trees lining the roads. Potholes are another common crash-causing element because they can cause cars to swerve and endanger other drivers around them.
With all of this in mind, car crashes have a much greater chance of causing a severe injury or fatality.
Closing Thoughts
COVID-19 is negatively affecting road safety for several different reasons. While people stay home to prevent spreading the virus, public roadways have become more dangerous despite experiencing less traffic.
A few impacts that coronavirus has had on road safety include fewer drivers, more distracted driving, an increase in reckless driving, and deadlier crashes. Many states have experienced fewer accidents, but this is more a factor of fewer drivers than better driving habits.
If you need to drive during COVID-19, be sure to drive particularly cautiously and always be aware of the other drivers around you!
