Ten Years Of Traffic Fatalities In One Interactive Map

by Edward Niedermeyer

Published: November 23rd, 2011

Some 369,629 Americans lost their lives on the road in the period from 2001 through 2009. Now ITO World has mapped every single one of them onto an interactive map that promises hours of morbid fun. Where do accidents happen? Who do they happen to? What kind of vehicles tend to be involved? Are there high-fatality areas near you? The answers to these questions and more await in this one-of-a-kind map.

#Maps #Safety #Traffic

Edward Niedermeyer

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MadHungarian on Nov 24, 2011

It's a little chilling that you can blow the map up to a certain point and trace out the entire Interstate Highway System. I thought the interstates were supposed to have a better safety record than many local roads. Does that get overshadowed by the higher traffic volume on the interstates?

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- Mark_Miata on Nov 24, 2011
  
  That works even at a more local level - when I blow up the map for my rural county in Oregon, you can easily trace our major roads. I think it's just the higher traffic volume for major routes - we have a couple of major highways (non-interstates), and I could trace their routes accurately based on the dots. There are other deaths in the county, but so few they do not trace a clear highway route.
  
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- Vww12 on Nov 24, 2011
  
  The death rate by passenger miles on divided highways is a small fraction of the death rate in two lane roads. Sheez.
  
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Golden2husky on Nov 24, 2011

Where I live I noticed a disproportionate amount of motorcycle deaths. Considering that the volume of automobile traffic vastly outnumbers that of motorcycles, that bike deaths should be such a large percentage of overall deaths is scary.

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- Mark_Miata on Nov 24, 2011
  
  There's a reason they call them donor-cycles.
  
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- Tparkit on Nov 24, 2011
  
  Depending on the source consulted, a motorcyclist is - per mile travelled - between 15 and 35 times as likely to die in an accident as someone in a 4-wheel vehicle. We riders tell ourselves that if we wear a helmet, attend motorcycle school, don't drink & ride, avoid "peak death" hours such as the wee hours from Friday through Sunday, and don't ride like an idiot, we can manage the risk. Truth is, motorcyling is outright dangerous.
  
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- Daveainchina on Nov 24, 2011
  
  where do you live?
  
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Sam P on Nov 24, 2011

I don't see the accident where a high school classmate lost her life back in December of '05. It was on a deserted rural road that is pretty easy to pick out.

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Ellomdian on Nov 25, 2011

It's a little sobering to see this map, then zoom in on the dot that was my fault. Great demo for my next driver's ed class discussion -if nothing else gets through to these kids, maybe this one will.

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