After a significant increase in fatal crashes in 2020 and 2021, the United States is starting to see fatalities resulting from crashes trending down. Crash fatalities have declined for the fourth straight year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). There were an estimated 36,640 traffic fatalities in 2025, a 6.7% decrease over 2024, while vehicle miles travelled (VMT) increased by 0.9%. NHTSA shared that 39 states showed decreases in crash fatalities.
Within the Traffic discipline at Sain Associates we have a team across Alabama and Tennessee that focuses on road safety. We’re naturally interested and invested in the crash fatalities numbers released each spring by NHTSA. Estimated crash fatalities in Alabama were reduced by 11.5% and in Tennessee by 11.4%.
In Alabama, our Road Safety team has been focused on the Safe Streets and Roads for All program. We have prepared numerous Safety Action Plans for various cities and counties across Alabama and have several more in the works. These plans all include a crash reduction goal and potential projects and countermeasures for reaching that goal. As part of those projects, we have provided social media content related to driver behaviors like the graphic shown for April, Distracted Driver Awareness Month.
In Tennessee, we have an on-call contract with the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) Project Safety Office. On this contract we have completed dozens of Road Safety Audits (RSA) across Tennessee – in about 2/3 of the Tennessee counties. Road Safety Audits look at roadways with high crash rates and make recommendations for improvements. These projects may lead to major design changes or simple, quickly installed countermeasures. We also updated the Strategic Highway Safety Plan for TDOT and other safety partners – this is the roadmap for reducing crashes across Tennessee through infrastructure and traffic operations improvements and driver behavior changes.
Crash fatalities appear to be trending downward in 2026 as well. Per the Tennessee Highway Safety Office dashboard, on April 15, 2025, Tennessee had 284 crash fatalities and on the same date in 2026 there were 237. While there is still a long way to go on reducing traffic fatalities, we’re proud to have contributed to the reductions and look forward to continuing work with our partners across both states.