46,000 die on U.S. roads in 2021: research

WASHINGTON, March 2 (Xinhua) -- More than 46,000 people died on U.S. roads in 2021, according to preliminary data released by the National Safety Council (NSC) on Wednesday.

The nonprofit safety advocate's estimate of total motor-vehicle deaths for 2021 is 46,020, up 9 percent from 42,339 in 2020 and up 18 percent from 39,107 in 2019, the data showed.

"This devastating news serves as yet another wake-up call for this country," Lorraine Martin, president and CEO of the NSC, said in a statement.

"We are failing each other, and we must act to prioritize safety for all road users," Martin said.

Mileage in 2021 rebounded 11 percent from COVID-19 lows in 2020 and only lags 2019 mileage by 1 percent, the NSC also reported. There were 1.43 deaths per 100 million miles traveled in 2021.

The NSC data is preliminary as the National Center for Health Statistics, a division of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reports official mortality estimates in the nation.

U.S. President Joe Biden has made the improvement of the nation's infrastructure a key piece of his domestic agenda.

Biden visited Superior, the midwestern U.S. state of Wisconsin, on Wednesday to discuss infrastructure, a day after he emphasized the issue in his first State of the Union address.