More than 200 people died in national parks last year: These were the deadliest

(NEXSTAR) — America’s national parks welcome millions of visitors each year. That includes his nearly record 311 million guests last year alone.

Unfortunately, some of those visitors never left the park.

Newly released data collected by the Public Risk Management Program from the National Park Service System shows that more than 2,600 visitors died in national parks between 2014 and early April 2023. increase. Of which he died 204 in his 2022 alone.

It wasn’t the worst year in nine years, but it was the worst since 2019, when there were a record 320 deaths across the NPS system (the same number as in 2017).

While you might assume that many of these deaths are due to proximity to wildlife and the freedom to traverse occasionally treacherous terrain, motor vehicles are the leading cause of death after ‘unreported’ It was an accident, accounting for 37 people. There have been fatalities at more than 20 national park sites.

After car crashes, other leading causes of death include drowning and falls, both accounting for 22 deaths, according to NPS data.

This is in line with the trend for national parks since 2014. Excluding data for 2022, the leading cause of death is again car crashes, with 415 lives lost to him over eight years. The crashes were followed by drowning (402) and medically related deaths (385).

Wildlife and animal deaths were the rarest during the same period. According to NPS, there were no documented deaths attributed to wildlife or animals in 2022, but the agency said the data was “subject to change as information collection and analysis continues.” there is potential,” he said.

As expected, some of the most visited national parks had the highest number of reported deaths.

Topping the list was Lake Mead Recreation Area with 21 reported deaths in 2022. Seven of his were from car accidents, and another seven of his were from drowning. Drowning was the leading cause of death at Lake Mead for the past eight years.

These are the five national parks with the highest mortality rates in 2022, excluding deaths from unreported causes, and are also the leading causes of death.

Based on mortality and visitor data available from NPS (not all parks are on mortality reports and not all parks track visitors), the National Far less than 1% of visitors died in the park (technically 0.00013%). .

Clara Barton National Historic Site has the highest fatality rate of 0.15% in 2022, with one motor vehicle fatality reported for over 673 visitors.

Based on mortality, these are the 5 deadliest parks in 2022:

The five national parks with the highest number of fatalities all had visitor mortality rates of 0.0005% or less.