Mandated societal lockdown and road traffic accidents

BACKGROUND: The effect of mandated societal lockdown to reduce the transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on road traffic accidents is not known. For this reason, we performed an in-depth analysis using data from Statewide Traffic Accident Records System. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We reviewed data on total 2292 road traffic accident records in Missouri from January 1, 2020 through May 15, 2020. We treated March 23 as the first day of mandated societal lockdown and May 3 as the first day of re-opening. RESULTS: We have found that there was a significant reduction in road traffic accidents resulting in minor or no injuries (mean 14.5 versus 10.8, p < 0.0001) but not in accidents resulting in serious or fatal injuries (mean 3.4 versus 3.7, p = 0.42) after mandated societal lockdown. Furthermore, there was a significant reduction in road traffic accidents resulting in minor or no injuries after the mandated social lockdown (parameter estimate -5.9, p = 0.0028) in the time series analysis. There was an increase in road traffic accidents resulting in minor or no injuries after expiration of mandatory societal lockdown (mean 10.8 versus 13.7, p = 0.04). CONCLUSION: The mandated societal lockdown policies led to reduction in road traffic accidents resulting in non-serious or no injuries but not those resulting in serious or fatal injuries.