DETROIT — Nearly 43,000 people were killed on U.S. roads last year, the highest number in 16 years as Americans returned to the highways after the pandemic forced many to stay at home.

A statistical projection of overall traffic fatalities for the first quarter of 2020 shows that an estimated 7,780 people died in crashes, a decrease of nearly 1%, or 70 fewer fatalities compared with the first quarter of 2019, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

For the fourth year in a row, Rhode Island has topped Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety’s list evaluating states’ road safety enforcement efforts.

WASHINGTON — Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Acting Administrator Jim Mullen has tasked his entire agency with finding ways in 2020 to turn around an increase in large-truck fatalities over the past four years.

Fatalities in crashes involving large trucks increased by just under 1% from 2017 to 2018, to 4,951 from 4,905, according to statistics released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

WASHINGTON ­­— Federal trucking regulators expressed concern over increasing numbers of large-truck-involved fatal crashes in work zones and a continuing increase in the number of fatalities of large-truck occupants.

DETROIT — The number of people killed on U.S. roads fell slightly in the first half of 2018, but a top safety organization says it’s likely that there will be little change in the number of deaths from 2017 by the end of the year.

National Safety Council CEO Deborah Hersman noted the goal of the newly formed Road to Zero Coalition is to dramatically reduce traffic deaths.

State and local law enforcement officers from five Southeastern states are out in large numbers in a special enforcement operation primarily looking for trucks and cars speeding on highways and interstates.