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Steep Increase in 2015 U.S. Roadway Deaths Prompts Regional Summits to Drive Traffic Safety Behavior Changes

By Ms. Michelle Birdsall posted 02-12-2016 08:34 AM

  

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced its latest estimate of traffic deaths, which show a steep 9.3 percent increase for the first nine months of 2015. The agency responded by kicking off its first in a series of regional summits with a day-long event in Sacramento, CA, USA to examine unsafe behaviors and human choices that contribute to increasing traffic deaths on a national scale.

NHTSA estimates that more than 26,000 people died in traffic crashes in the first nine months of 2015, compared to the 23,796 fatalities in the first nine months of 2014. U.S. regions nationwide showed increases ranging from 2 to 20 percent. Human factors contribute to 94 percent of crashes according to decades of NHTSA research. View the report at www.nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812240.pdf.

“For decades, U.S. DOT has been driving safety improvements on our roads, and those efforts have resulted in a steady decline in highway deaths,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “But the apparent increase in 2015 is a signal that we need to do more. The safety summits that NHTSA is kicking off will provide us with new approaches to add to the tried-and-true tactics that we know save lives.”

The cross-cutting regional summits being held across the United States will be capped by a nationwide gathering in Washington, DC, USA to gather ideas, engage new partners, and generate additional approaches to combat human behavioral issues that contribute to road deaths. The summits will address drunk, drugged, distracted and drowsy driving; speeding; failure to use safety features such as seat belts and child seats; and new initiatives to protect vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists.

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