Coincidently, here a news story today.
Charles
^^^^^
Road deaths fall to new low
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
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Road deaths fall to new low
Seat-belt use, fewer drunk drivers cited, but SUV fatalities up
By Lisa Zagaroli / Detroit News Washington Bureau
See the reports
<http://www.detnews.com/pix/folios/general/redarrow.gif> NHTSA
announcement, state-by-state fatality statistics for two years
<http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/nhtsa/announce/press/pressdisplay.cfm?year=2004&fi
lename=pr35-04.html>
<http://www.detnews.com/pix/folios/general/redarrow.gif> NHTSA
summary, analysis and full report
<http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd-30/NCSA/PPT/2003AARelease.pdf>
<http://www.detnews.com/pix/folios/dot.gif>
WASHINGTON - Fewer people died on U.S. highways during 2003 in every
type of passenger vehicle except sport utility vehicles, according to new
data showing the lowest fatality rate since the government began tracking
it.
Safety officials said the decline - which ended a troubling rise in
highway deaths in recent years - was owed largely to better seat-belt use
and fewer drunken-driving accidents.
Last year, 42,643 people died and 2.89 million were injured in
crashes, compared to 43,005 deaths and 2.93 million injuries in 2002.
"We're encouraging safer cars, safer roads and aggressively
discouraging impaired driving," said Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta.
The report noted several positive trends:
* While Americans drove more miles last year, the death rate -
highway fatalities per 100 million miles traveled - fell to a record low of
1.48 from 1.51 in 2002.
* Only 56 percent of occupants who died in crashes weren't buckled
up, compared to about 60 percent in 2002, said Dr. Jeffrey Runge, head of
the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
* Drunken-driving deaths dropped 3 percent, the first decline since
1999. Runge said it helped that 14 states adopted the tougher blood-alcohol
standard of 0.08 last year to avoid losing federal funds.
Local safe driving advocates cheered the news.
"That's very encouraging," said Lee Landes of Farmington Hills, who
teamed up with his wife to found Wayne County Mothers Against Drunk Drivers
in 1982 after their son, George, was killed by a drunken driver. "I'm
encouraged by the statistics, but it's also an incentive to keep up the work
we've been doing."
Jim Kress of Northville agrees that using seat belts saves lives and
said he used them long before the Michigan law requiring it took effect in
1999.
"I've used seat belts ... because I personally think they're safer.
But I still don't think the government should be making people use them,
even if it does mean more safety."
NHTSA's report differs notably from a preliminary report issued in
April that suggested 2003 data would show another increase in highway
fatalities. Runge said the projections issued in April didn't take into
account the success of the agency's $25 million seat belt awareness campaign
and tougher enforcement efforts.
Fatalities in passenger cars dropped the most, by 5.4 percent to
19,460 deaths; followed by pickup trucks, by 3.2 percent to 2,066 deaths;
and vans, by 2 percent to 2,066 deaths.
SUV deaths increased 10 percent to 4,446, with rollovers linked to
59 percent of all SUV fatalities. Even so, Joan Williams-Cash of Southfield
said she feels "safe in my SUV."
"I feel better being a little more off the ground. When I'm driving
anything else any more, I feel like I'm dragging the ground," she said.
Rollover deaths in passenger cars fell 7.5 percent and in pickup
trucks 6.8 percent, but they rose 3.6 percent in vans and 6.8 percent in
SUVs.
"There were actually fewer rollover deaths than would have been
predicted in SUVs by the (11 percent) increase in registrations," Runge
said. "What we don't have are data to say whether that was due to more
people buckling up or whether there were fewer rollover crashes."
Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook said the death rate has gone
down steadily for 60 years, but the raw number of deaths has remained about
the same since 1995.
"The reason they haven't gone down - even with the advent of air
bags - is an increase in SUVs and increase in rollovers," she said.
Runge said the number of serious crashes was down as well,
reflecting improvements in crash avoidance as well as crashworthiness.
Death rates among child occupants were slightly up through age 15,
although the number of children killed as pedestrians, for example, fell,
the report shows.
Other problem areas include motorcycle rider fatalities, which have
grown 73 percent to 3,661 deaths in six years, and large truck occupant
deaths, which were up about 5 percent to 723.
Truck driver Jan Grattafiori of Brighton, who, along with husband
Doug are owner/operators, blamed the increase in large truck fatalities on
the way people drive.
"I think the problem is people drive stupid," she said. "You're out
there; you see it. Everyone's in a hurry to go nowhere - that goes for
truckers and everyone else. People need to slow down."
Traffic deaths fell in 27 states. In Michigan, highway fatalities
rose half a percent to 1,283 in 2003.
Barbara Harsha, executive director of the Governors Highway Safety
Association, said a greater national focus must be paid to the role speed
plays in crashes, as well as impaired driving and seat belt use.
Detroit News Staff Writer George Hunter contributed to this report.
You can reach Washington correspondent Lisa Zagaroli at (202) 906-8206 or
[EMAIL PROTECTED]; Rage
