5 Surprising Pennsylvania Car Accident Statistics!

While Pennsylvania certainly isn’t the worst state in the nation in regard to car accidents, the numbers for higher populated counties like Allegheny aren’t exactly promising. This infographic breaks down how Pittsburgh and the surrounding areas are doing compared to the rest of the state as well as general need-to-know statistics on Pennsylvania car accidents per the 2019 PennDot report.

A Local Problem

Currently, Allegheny County leads the state in miles of locally maintained roads at 5.86% of Pennsylvania’s total. Allegheny also leads the state in reported traffic crashes, 9.8% of Pennsylvania’s total reported crashes.

This means that, unlike Philadelphia county which bears similar crash statistics but far less locally maintained roads, Allegheny County must rely on local solutions to change these numbers.

Five Years of Little Change in Pittsburgh

Looking at the last five years of crashes around the Pittsburgh metro, you will see that our area has varied no more than .4% and is not exactly trending downward.

Total crashes:

2015 – 12665 or 10% of state total
2016 – 12858 or 9.9% of state total
2017 – 12470 or 9.7% of state total
2018 – 12369 or 9.6% of state total
2019 – 12225 or 9.8% of state total

What’s more, from 2015 to 2019, Allegheny County jumped from accounting for 4.5% of Pennsylvania’s traffic-related fatalities to 5.9% of Pennsylvania’s traffic-related fatalities, reaching as high as 72 deaths in 2016.

Contributing Factors to Pennsylvania Car Accidents and Fatalities

When car accidents were the result of driver error, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation found the following were contributing factors in 2019:

Speed-related
Drinking
Reckless passing
Improper turns
Distracted driving
Failure to yield
Drowsiness
Tailgating

Age Makes a Difference

-Adult males between ages 21 and 30 account for 14.3% of Pennsylvania car crash involvement, more than any other group

-There were 63 fatalities and 758 injuries in adults aged 60 years or older while ages 15 to 59 saw far fewer deaths compared to injuries at 86 deaths to 2,617 injuries. This means elderly drivers were far more likely to die in car wrecks than those in younger groups.

Overall, Positive Changes from 2018 to 2019

From 2018 to 2019, there were significant changes in Pennsylvania car accident-related statistics.

2019 saw 154 pedestrian fatalities, nearly 50 fewer deaths than 2018 which had 201 pedestrian fatalities
There were also 299 alcohol-related car accident fatalities in 2019, whereas 2018 had 331.
In fact, according to the report, 1,059 fatalities in car-related accidents in 2019 is the lowest number in that category for Pennsylvania in 92 years.

In an Accident? Call Us for a Free Consultation

Hal Waldman & Associates provides extensive personal injury representation throughout Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania. If you were recently injured in a car accident, we can help steer you in the right direction. Call us today at 412-850-3064 and visit us at https://waldmaninc.com.