A post-pandemic oddity: Wichita has fewer car crashes, but more traffic deaths

The COVID-19 pandemic has many ongoing side effects — increased drinking, worse mental health and increased risk of diabetes, cancer and other diseases.

And, in Wichita and other places, more traffic deaths.

The increase in deaths comes despite a drop in auto accidents. Exactly why isn’t clear.

“We just do not know why,” said Chad Parasa, executive director for the Wichita Area Metropolitan Planning Organization. “We just know that they did.”

More fatalities, fewer accidents

In the years before the pandemic, the rate of traffic deaths in Wichita held steady, averaging 26 fatal accidents that killed an average of 28 people a year from 2013 to 2019. The numbers climbed during the pandemic, peaking in 2021 with 42 fatal crashes and 47 deaths.

In Kansas, fatal crashes went from 361 in 2019 to 415 in 2022, a 15% increase.

Nationally, the trend is the same. From 2018 to 2022, the number of deadly car accidents in the United States increased by 16%.

Yet car accidents are trending down in Wichita, something not seen more broadly. The city saw 1,000 fewer car crashes last year than in 2013 and 2,000 less than at their peak in 2016.

Most experts expected to see fewer deaths on the road, not more.

Why are there more fatal car crashes in Wichita?

There’s no definitive reason — only educated guesses — for the rise in traffic deaths.

“With less people on the roads,” said Kim Neufeld, multimodal transportation safety planner for WAMPO, “more drivers were speeding and not paying as close attention to the roads.”

Neufeld’s hypothesis echoes other experts. Drivers got accustomed to empty roads where they could take more risks.

An expert from the National Safety Council told the Los Angeles Times that drivers were more likely to speed, drink or use drugs and leave their seat belts unbuckled after the pandemic.

Other analysts speculate that the pandemic left more people stressed and less careful on roads.

But there has been no proof as to why more crashes are deadly, only that they are.

Is there good news?

While still higher than it was 10 years ago, the number of fatal car crashes in Wichita has dropped slightly from its peak in 2021. The city also sees about 1,500 fewer traffic accidents per year than before the pandemic.

Road safety has also become a bigger focus for WAMPO and other federally funded planning organizations.

“There have been more conferences and research on how to make roads safer for all who use them,” Parasa said, “It’s become a priority.”

That includes upgrading other transportation options, such as buses and bike paths, that keep people out of cars.

BikeWalk Wichita has been working with the city to improve pedestrian safety, and Wichita is reviewing its bus routes to enhance usability.

Anecdotally, Neufeld said that Wichita is seeing more people choose to walk or bike to their destinations.

Parasa said all of this will create safer streets in Wichita.

But it’s going to take time to see results, he said.

“And we are going to do years and years of work every day,” Parasa said, “to make sure we address the causes.”

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