Mandated societal lockdown and road traffic accidents

•Mandated societal lockdown in Missouri reduced the rate of road traffic accidents.•No changes in road traffic accidents resulting in serious or fatal injuries.•Increased road traffic accident related hospitalizations are not expected. The effect of mandated societal lockdown to reduce the transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on road traffic accidents is not known. For this reason, we performed an in-depth analysis using data from Statewide Traffic Accident Records System. We reviewed data on total 2292 road traffic accident records in Missouri from January 1, 2020 through May 15, 2020. We treated March 23 as the first day of mandated societal lockdown and May 3 as the first day of re-opening. We have found that there was a significant reduction in road traffic accidents resulting in minor or no injuries (mean 14.5 versus 10.8, p