Good News: We Died Less Often on the Road Last Year

After alarming increases in U.S. traffic fatalities in 2015 and 2016, data just released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows a decrease in the number of people who died in car crashes in 2017. A decrease, for sure, but still a shocking number: 37,133, or about one-third the population of West Palm Beach, Florida.

The same is true for Billings, Montana, as well as North Charleston, South Carolina and Manchester, New Hampshire.

The 1.8 percent drop in road deaths comes on the heels of a 6.5 percent increase in 2016 and an 8.4 percent spike in 2015. Have we suddenly become safer drivers? It seems so.

According to NHTSA data, 2017 saw 637 fewer crash fatalities than the year before, despite a 1.2 percent increase in the number of vehicle miles travelled (VMT). That bring’s last year’s fatality rate for 100 million VMT to 1.16, down from 2016’s 1.19. To put this into context, the fatality rate a decade ago was 1.33, despite a similar number of actual fatalities. Blame more people on the road today, racking up the nation’s total mileage.

In 2014, the fatality rate was 1.08 deaths per 100 million VMT, but the combination of cratering gas prices and low interest rates meant more Americans were buying cars and driving those vehicles longer distances. Still, total miles travelled do not tell the whole story. If that was the case, we’d have seen an increase last year.

It’s hard to tell just how much death-lowering credit we should give safer vehicle construction and fancy, automated safety aids that would have seemed like science fiction in the pre-recession era. The average car on American roads is still 11 years of age. Still, compared to stats from 2008, vehicle occupants have fallen from 39 percent of the fatality total to 36 percent. Light truck occupants fell from 29 percent to 27 percent in that time frame.

Interestingly, pedestrians and cyclists saw their share of the fatalities grow from 14 percent in 2008 to 19 percent last year. Over the past two years, we’ve seen growing concern among safety advocates about the dangers of both distracted driving and walking. Never before have drivers and pedestrians had so much opportunity to not look in front of them. Of course, while safety remains a two-way street, the onus is on the driver to stay alert.

Part of the problem seems to be that vehicles and pedestrians are increasingly living in close proximity to each other. The NHTSA’s stats reveal a demographic shift; a hollowing out of rural America. Vehicle miles travelled dropped 2.1 percent in rural areas over the past decade. In urban areas, it increased 13.1 percent. Correspondingly, since 2008, the rural fatality rate fell 16 percent, while the urban fatality rate (per 100 million VMT) rose 3.7 percent. Leaving mileage out of it, urban deaths rose 17.4 percent and rural fatalities sank 18 percent. Pedestrian fatalities in urban areas increased by a whopping 46 percent.

As for 2017, there’s more than just a slightly reduced death rate to be proud of. Better behavior was on display in many areas. Alcohol-related fatalities fell 1.1 percent to 29 percent of all deaths — the lowest percentage in recorded history (records started in 1982), while speeding-related deaths fell 5.6 percent. Pedestrian deaths fell by 1.7 percent and cyclist deaths dropped by 8.1 percent. As for distracted driving, that’s the causal factor in 8.5 percent of traffic fatalities, down from 9 percent in 2016.

The data also reveals a continuing trend showing kids these days (ages 16-24) are increasingly not going wild behind the wheel. Their grandparents, on the other hand, aren’t helping anything. Over the past decade, the number of seniors (aged 65-plus) involved in fatal crashes grew 29.1 percent, the result of another demographic shift.