Despite many fewer vehicle miles driven, traffic deaths are on pace with 2019 levels.
Record Roadway Fatalities Prompt NSC to Challenge Biden Administration
The National Safety Council calls on federal leadership to reduce deaths in vehicle crashes.
The National Safety Council calls on federal leadership to reduce deaths in vehicle crashes.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has found that traffic fatalities fell 2% in 2019, and early 2020 estimates show another 2% decline, though vehicle miles traveled this year dropped 16.6% year-over-year.
Injury patterns were consistent with earlier, national studies in showing that SUVs were more likely than cars to throw pedestrians forward and nearly twice as likely to cause severe hip and thigh injuries.
Motor vehicle crashes and falls remained the leading causes of preventable death on the job in 2018, as preventable and unintentional workplace deaths continue their rise in recent years, according to data from the U.S. Department of Labor.
Highway fatality numbers are down overall except in cases involving large trucks. According to the latest Department of Transportation statistics, there were 673 fewer highway deaths in 2017 than in 2016.
Despite being flat, crashes are still a problem for fleets, and data reported for the 2017 calendar-year has identified some of the biggest obstacles.
As red light camera programs in communities across the nation have declined, deaths in red-light-running crashes increased from 696 in 2012 to 811 in 2016 — representing a 17% increase according to an Insurance Institute of Highway Safety (IIHS) analysis.
Over the past few years, approximately 5% to 10% of automotive fatalities in Nebraska involved some sort of drug impairment, according to data provided by a state highway safety administrator.
Between Memorial Day and Labor Day of 2016, more than 1,050 people lost their lives in crashes involving teenage drivers. That translates into 10 fatalities each day — a 14% increase compared to the remainder of the year, according to the AAA Foundation.