More Remote Work, Fewer Traffic Deaths.

• Position: VEHICLE CRASHES

The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked renewed interest in remote work arrangements, which also could help improve occupational and traffic safety, according to a study by researchers at Florida Atlantic University and the University of Miami.

Gulcin Gumus, associate professor in FAU's College of Business, and Michael T. French, professor and chair of UM's Health Management and Policy Department, examined the effect of economic business cycles on traffic deaths in the U.S., with a special emphasis on work-related crashes. Those are defined as crashes involving at least one vehicle registered to a business, company, or government agency.

The study, published in the journal Social Science & Medicine, revealed that traffic deaths tied to the workplace increase during robust economic times and decline during recessions, a clear indication that fewer workers on the roads leads to better traffic safety.

Gumus and French estimate that a one percentage point decline in a state's unemployment rate is tied to a 4.7% increase in work-related traffic fatalities. The findings could help convince U.S. employees and employers that some amount of remote work should become a permanent option.

In the earliest days of the pandemic, state and local leaders nationwide issued stay-at-home orders to curtail the spread of COVID-19. That left much of the U.S. workforce to set up home offices and conduct...