Motor Vehicle Fatalities: On the Decline

Improvements in Safety Cited as Primary Reason

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has released estimates for fatalities related to motor vehicle accidents in 2011, and if the projections are confirmed to be accurate it will be the least amount of traffic fatalities since the government began keeping records of the statistic in 1949.

New and improved safety features installed on almost every new car have been described as the single biggest reason for the sharp drop off in road deaths. A 26% decrease in deaths per year since 2005 has been a strong indicated of the new technology's success. In addition, the fatality rate for vehicle miles traveled (or VMT) also recessed significantly, from 1.09 fatalities per 100 million miles driven in 2010 down to 1.11 in 2011.

Some of the most prominent cutting edge and up-and-coming technology is creating quite a positive stir from the public and the federal government. At the forefront of this new wave of safety features is vehicle-to-vehicle communication, which is outlined further in our blog Can Your Car Talk?. Other new additions to vehicles, such as emergency brake assist, adaptive headlights, electronic stability control, and intelligent airbags are all contributory to a collective effort to improve safety which appears to be functioning as planned.

Another feature that has been at the center of attention is a "lane departure warning system," which utilizes onboard cameras to detect driving lanes. If a driver mistakenly steers the vehicle outside of designated lines, the system will either alert the driver of the potential error or (in the case of more refined systems) will automatically correct the mistake and steer the vehicle back into the proper lane automatically.

The arrival of new technologies is no surprise for automobile makers, who have long recognized that safety ranks as one of the most important features of a vehicle for a prospective buyer. Companies are even investigating ways to curtail the growing problem of distracted driving with innovations like in-windshield displays, which would allow a driver to see the road and controls or navigation systems simultaneously.

Cars are most certainly getting safer; how do you feel about the new technologies being implemented?

If you are injured in a car accident in the greater Denver area, please call the Law Offices of Robert Paysinger at (303) 279-0221 for a free initial consultation. We help injured people - It's all we do!

Source: Major Improvements in Safety Significantly Reduce Auto Fatalities. In The Denver Post, June 23 2012.