Traffic Deaths an Epidemic?
U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta called highway traffic
deaths a “national epidemic” and encouraged
Americans to view safety belts as preventative medicine. He announced mixed results in the effort
to reduce the number of people who die on U.S. highways
each year. While the fatality rate dropped and alcohol-related
crashes are down from 2003, 42,800 died on the nation’s
highways in 2004, up slightly from 42,643 in 2003, according
to projected 2004 data compiled by the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration in a preliminary report.
“We are in the midst of a national epidemic,”
said Secretary Mineta. “If this many people were to
die from any one disease in a single year, Americans would
demand a vaccine. The irony is we already have the best
vaccine available to reduce the death toll on our highways
– safety belts.”
NHTSA’s report projects a fatality rate of 1.46 deaths
per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT), a drop from
a record low of 1.48 in 2003, Mineta said.
The report also projects the seventh straight increase in
motorcycle fatalities. In 2004, 3,927 motorcyclists died,
a 7.3 percent increase. In 2003, there were 3,661 motorcycle
fatalities, the report said.
Traffic crashes come at an enormous cost to society, Mineta
noted. NHTSA estimates show that highway crashes cost society
$230.6 billion a year, about $820 per person.
“Sadly, traffic crashes continue to be the leading
cause of death in American children and young adults,”
said NHTSA Administrator Jeffrey Runge, M.D. “While
seat belt use, at 80 percent, is at an all-time high, we
could save thousands more lives each year if everyone buckled-up.”
NHTSA collects crash statistics from 50 states and the District
of Columbia to produce the annual report on traffic fatality
trends. The final 2004 report will be available in August.
Summaries of the preliminary
report are available at www.nhtsa.gov.
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