Officials At Loss To Explain Why Rise In Driving Is Corresponding To More Traffic Fatalities

Federal officials estimate traffic fatalities are on track to substantially increase in 2015, following a record-low of Americans dying in vehicles in 2014.

The Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Tuesday announced 32,675 people died in motor vehicle crashes in 2014, a 0.1 percent decrease from the previous year. The fatality rate fell to a record-low of 1.07 deaths per million vehicle miles traveled.

But estimates for the first six months of 2015 show a troubling increase in the number of fatalities. This year, officials estimate 2015 fatalities are up 8.1 percent from the same period last year: 21,022 Americans died in vehicles in 2014 – the lowest number since data began being collected in 1975. While cyclist deaths also declined, the number of pedestrians killed rose by 3.1 percent from 2013 and is on track to possibly increase more than 10 percent in 2015.

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MDarringer - 11/25/2015 11:45:59 AM

+3 Boost

The answer is simple: people are driving and texting at an alarming rate. There needs to be a law that forces a phone to be inoperable in hand-held mode inside a car. If phones when inert inside a car, fatalities would go down.

I'd like to see a driver's license get revoked for texting and driving. I'd like to see a mandatory death penalty for fatalities caused by a driver who is texting.

Vette71 - 11/25/2015 3:56:58 PM

+1 Boost

Good idea.

TheSteve - 11/25/2015 12:00:04 PM

+3 Boost

The article sites two likely reasons combined: (1) Low gas prices mean people are driving more + (2) Texting while driving. What a surprise :-/

Agent009 - 11/25/2015 1:26:53 PM

+2 Boost

but can't you simply regulate the deaths away? That seems to be what they think is possible.

TheSteve - 11/25/2015 3:34:48 PM

+1 Boost

Agent009: You're right. Passing a law, in and of itself, is nearly 100% ineffective. Singapore is a country that has, rightly or wrongly, shown us what it takes to change human behavior:

(1) The Law: Pass a law that clearly states the desired behavior, and make it well-known.

(2) You Will Be Caught: Surveillance and enforcement of the law is required to catch the majority of transgressors. This makes people *believe* that if they break the law, they will be caught.

(3) You Will Be Convicted: The US is famous for "You're Innocent If You Have The Money To Prove It," with more lawyers per capita than any other nation on Earth. In Singapore, the conviction rate is extremely high. This makes people *believe* that if they're caught, they will likely be found guilty, and they won't be able to weasel (or lawyer) their way out of the charge.

(4) The Punishment Will Be Severe: In Singapore, if you're a "tagger" (AKA Grafitti Artist), the punishment is multiple lashings across your bare ass. They're so severe, they literally open your flesh. Holy sh*t, that's crazy!!

Only when you combine the beliefs of (a) I will be caught, (b) I will be convicted, and (c) my punishment will he horrible (or so not worth my time), do you have a meaningful deterrent and a change in human behavior*.

Totally different matters that might be argued are...
- An individual's right to various freedoms
- The punishment fitting the crime
- The appropriateness of widespread surveillance of mostly innocent civilians
...and so on. I'm not addressing these, nor challenging them.

Please note that most places already have "no texting and driving" laws, and yet people still do, and it's near the top of the list as a cause for automotive incidents. Clearly, the laws in and of themselves, aren't curbing the problem.

*In most cases. In some extreme cases, like many humans' drive for sex or for the essentials of life (air, water, food), humans are known to even risk extreme consequences just to survive.

ViperLover - 11/25/2015 12:01:50 PM

+1 Boost

Could also have something to do with the number of immigrants who are coming here from countries who are known for not being the best drivers to begin with, because the low requirements for having a license and their lack of road rules. This is based on having traveled the world and driven with most of them...aka and educated assessment.

HoustonMidtown - 11/27/2015 7:56:26 AM

+1 Boost

Has there been a mad rush of immigrants in the last 6 months - since that is what the article talks about...after a record low the year before, the rate was rising the first 6 months of this year...

PUGPROUD - 11/25/2015 6:04:50 PM

+1 Boost

You want to catch people texting just look in my rearview mirror! I wish I had an LED sign in my rear window I could switch on that says "STOP TEXTING SAVE LIVES." Additional reasons...driver training not being what it use to be, everyone in a hurry and alcohol/drugs. I recently set my cruise control to 5 miles over speed limit and counted 137 cars that passed me in the left lane on a 19 mile trip. In the UK they passed a law last March that cars can be stopped randomly to spot check drivers for drugs. Of the first 2038 cars stopped 1,080 or 53% failed...850 tested for weed, 150 for cocaine and 66 for a combination of both. I'm pretty sure similar tests done here on a Saturday night would get the same result. Autonomous driving in time is likely the only solution for reducing driving deaths significantly.

TomM - 11/26/2015 2:48:21 PM

+2 Boost

The problem with such a law is that Law enforcement rarely stops cars randomly - and the people get out of the ticket because of that. But - TODAY - there exists the technology to prevent texting in a moving vehicle - as well as there exists the technology to prevent a car from exceeding the posted speed limit on highways. We could prevent these problems - but I doubt we will ever get anyone to agree to those measures.