The number of people killed in motor vehicle accidents declined slightly from 2012 to 2013. This is great news for people in Knoxville, Farragut, Hardin Valley, Powell and throughout the United States since it means that the roads were a little safer over the course of the year. Unfortunately, a personal injury lawyer knows that there are still far too many preventable fatalities occurring. People on bicycles, pedestrians and motorcycle riders are especially vulnerable to dangerous road conditions and continue to have high fatality rates.
Drivers need to be aware of the behaviors that can increase the chances of an accident happening and should take steps to try to improve safety for everyone so the death toll can continue to decline.
Traffic Deaths Down But Risks Still Exist
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), there was a 3.1 percent decline in traffic accident deaths in 2013 as compared with 2012. There were still 32,719 people who were killed over the year.
The U.S. has reduced the number of deadly traffic accidents 41 percent since the 1970s, which the NHTSA also touts as good news. The reality, however, is that the decline in traffic accident deaths was greater in 25 other countries according to USA Today. In the Netherlands and Germany, there was as much as an 81 percent reduction in people killed in car crashes. These other countries are doing much better than the U.S., even as the NHTSA tries to put a good spin on the number of people who are killed.
Even in 2013 when fewer people overall died, some of the most vulnerable people on the roads continued to lose their lives in record numbers. The number of pedestrians who were killed, for example, fell only slightly to 4,735 deaths. Since 2009, there has been a 15 percent increase in pedestrian deaths. The number of motorcycle riders killed also remains near to record highs, even as the death rate declined slightly over 2013.
Bicycle riders had the worst year, with a 1.2 percent increase in the number of people on bicycles who were killed in 2013. There were more bike riders killed over the course of this year than since 2006. The increase in bike accident deaths reflects the fact that bicycle riding has become an increasingly popular way for people to commute, especially in urban areas.
The reason that bicycle riders, pedestrians and bikers may not be getting much safer even as traffic deaths go down could be because these groups do not benefit as much from improvements in vehicle crash technologies.
USA Today reports that the NHTSA and the U.S. in general have focused a lot of effort on the creation of technologies to reduce the impact crashes have on people’s bodies and have done much less than other countries in actually changing driver behavior to make people safer. This could explain both why other countries have brought their death tolls down so much more than the U.S. and why people who use the roads but who aren’t in cars are dying at high rates even as the number of motorists dying in vehicles goes down.
Knoxville accident lawyer can help collision victims. Contact G. Turner Howard III, Attorney at Law at (844) G3-Help-Me or 865-558-8030. Serving Knoxville, Farragut, Hardin Valley, Powell and surrounding areas.
