Weird but true: Suicides are down during the pandemic and traffic deaths are up Share on Facebook AllahpunditPosted at 11:34 am on April 5, 2021 Share on Facebook Share on Twitter If I’d asked you to predict 12 and a half months ago as America began locking down whether suicides and road fatalities would rise or fall in 2020, you would have guessed there’d be many more of the former and far fewer of the latter. And when I say “you,” I mean all of you. It seemed a fait accompli that mass unemployment plus intense social isolation plus the stress of manifold life disruptions (e.g., schools closing) that came with pandemic living would drive some people to take their own lives who in normal times would have been fine. And because so many businesses and workplaces were closed and so many Americans were afraid to congregate and risk infection, there’d be far less reason to drive and therefore fewer dangerous car accidents.