While there are still too many fatalities on American highways, the 2008 numbers contained some surprises and some good news.
It’s all still preliminary, but there’s significant news in some details dribbling out here and there about 2008 highway deaths.
As reported in TheDetroitBureau on March 13, estimates of traffic deaths last year based on records through October indicate a significant decline nationwide in both total deaths and the rate of deaths per 100,000 vehicle miles traveled.
Some interesting details are emerging as individual states report separately from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The Governors Highway Safety Association surveyed its members in January and got responses from 44 states and the District of Columbia. The organization revealed that only four states – Vermont, Wyoming, New Hampshire and Delaware – reported increases in highway deaths in 2008.
Unfortunately for the statistics, four of the six states failing to report were the most populous ones-California, New York, Texas, Pennsylvania. (The other two non-responders were Maryland and Alabama.)
And obviously, the states reporting increases in deaths are sparsely populated, so it is hard to make much of their stats. Vermont, for instance, reported a 10.6% increase in deaths, but the actual numbers were 66 in 2007 and 73 last year. A single multi-fatal crash could throw off the statistics wildly, so you can’t make much of the increase.
Michigan on the other hand reported that traffic deaths in 2008 were the lowest since 1925. This is significant, given that the actual number was 980, down from 1,084 in 2007.
Moreover, Michigan could point with pride to the fact deaths were down in many categories: down in motorcycle accidents, down among teen-agers, down among pedestrians, down among commercial vehicles and, importantly, down in alcohol-related fatal crashes. Largely unreported by media during the year was the fact there were 12 people killed in collisions with deer on Michigan roads. Drug-related crashes increased from 90 to 130 but the increase was attributed more to better law enforcement follow-up than an abuse trend.
Michael L. Prince, director of Michigan’s Office of Highway Safety Planning, attributed the decline in the state’s highway death toll to the “extremely high” safety belt usage. A study by the Wayne State University Transportation Report Group last October reported an astounding 97% observed safety belt usage rate in the state.
In Wyoming, one of the states reporting an increase in highway deaths last year, the safety belt usage rate in 2008 was reported as 68.9%, down from 72.2% the year before.
As reported here last month, generally the decline in highway deaths nationally is attributed to motorists traveling less and more slowly due to high gas prices last summer, the declining economy late in the year, as well as other factors such as more interstate highway miles, safer vehicles and attention to teen- and drunk-driving problems.
If there’s a single message here, it’s obvious: buckle up.