After 9/11 Fear of Flying Caused an Increase on Driving Deaths

None of us who were there on September 11, 2001, will ever forget that day. Unprecedented levels of anxiety were felt in America as a result of the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. On American territory, planes had been turned into weapons, and for a very long time afterward, nobody knew what was secure. This had a significant impact on aviation travel and, consequently, car fatalities.

The airline industry was shut down for days because of fear of other terrorist attacks. Even after it was reopened, few people wanted to fly again. As a result, more Americans chose to fly than to drive. The result was a sharp increase in traffic fatalities and accidents. In fact, according to statistics, there were 1,600 more traffic fatalities the year after September 11 than there should have been, or, depending on the data sets utilized, around 242 more fatalities monthly.