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My thoughts. Before the pandemic a majority of the miles driven were by conscientious people going to and from work. They’re not speeding or doing silly stuff. They are intent on living their lives. Let’s say the cars are normalized to 100 on the road. Of those, let’s say five percent, five cars, are being driven by people who are constitutionally disposed to reckless behavior. Those five are pretty much speed regulated by the flow of traffic in normal conditions. They don’t have as much opportunity to engage in risky behavior because they are stuck behind people driving to and from work at the speed limit.

Now, we have a pandemic. Most businesses are shut. The number of cars on the road is drastically reduced. But those drivers who were reckless probably weren’t employed. They were doing whatever they wanted. Now, they are not speed limited by the other traffic. And, they represent a significantly larger percentage of the drivers on the road. They are going to encounter other risky drivers at a greater rate. There will be more road rage. More races. More Darwinistic behavior.

If, during the pandemic, the accident rate had dropped. It would mean that there are many fewer risk takers in our society than there really is. A greater death rate merely confirms there are plenty of people out there with some sort of dispensation towards being stupid behind the wheel.

five percent, five cars, are being driven by people who are constitutionally disposed to reckless behavior. Those five are pretty much speed regulated by the flow of traffic in normal conditions.

I rarely see one of those folks, so I am thinking it is below 1%.

They are very easy to spot on the busy four lane commercial roads in our area. They are always weaving from lane to lane trying to pass every car as quickly as possible. They will always blow through yellow lights and sometimes lights that just turned red.

Since the area is heavily patrolled by cops, the only reason they don't get caught speeding is because there is too much traffic for them to accelerate very far and very fast.

I got the impression that there were fewer automobile collisions, but the ones that happened were much higher energy (speed of vehicle). Slightly few collisions, but much more likely to have death or serious injury (not a lot of death or injury in sub 20MPH collisions with modern cars).