{"id":98133,"date":"2015-09-01T08:08:53","date_gmt":"2015-09-01T12:08:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=98133"},"modified":"2015-09-01T08:08:53","modified_gmt":"2015-09-01T12:08:53","slug":"nhtsa-says-traffic-fatalities-on-the-rise-in-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2015\/09\/nhtsa-says-traffic-fatalities-on-the-rise-in-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"NHTSA Says Traffic Fatalities on the Rise in 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"
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NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind said he won't let up on automakers in a push for safety.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

New vehicles in the U.S. are the safest vehicles ever built, but the country\u2019s highways are seeing the highest fatality rates in nearly a decade and that has safety officials scrambling to figure out what to do about it.<\/p>\n

Despite more cars and trucks than ever being equipped with collision prevention equipment and vehicles designed to crash in ways to better protect vehicle occupants, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced U.S. traffic deaths jumped 9.5% to an estimated 7,500 during the first quarter of 2015.<\/p>\n

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Your Source for Auto Safety News!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Part of the increase is being blamed on the fact that due to an improved economy spurred by low gas prices, Americans are driving more. Miles logged are up 3.9% during the same period, but that doesn\u2019t account for everything, according to safety experts.<\/p>\n

The news isn\u2019t going to get any better in the short term as the Labor Day holiday approaches. The National Safety Council, or NSC, predicts another 395 people will die on U.S. roadways during the three-day weekend this year an additional 47,800 will be injured. The NSC is forecasting that traffic deaths through the first six months of the year are up 14%, citing the same factors as NHTSA.<\/p>\n

From January to June, nearly 19,000 people died in traffic crashes across the U.S., and more than 2.2 million were seriously injured, putting the country on pace for its deadliest driving year since 2007.<\/p>\n

Even with the latest, upward trend, the U.S. highway death toll is down almost 40% from its peak four decades ago. That said, there is \u201cno way our country should tolerate 32,917 people dying on our roadways,\u201d Mark Rosekind, the new head of federal traffic safety enforcement declared during a visit to Detroit last month. That was the figure for 2013, the last year for which the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has complete numbers.<\/p>\n

Costs are also up. The six-month estimated bill for traffic deaths, injuries and property damage is $152 billion \u2013 24% higher than 2014.<\/p>\n

(U.S. safety deaths headed for eight-year high. For more, <\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/span>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“Follow the numbers: the trend we are seeing on our roadways is like a flashing red light \u2013 danger lies ahead,” said Deborah Hersman, president and CEO of the NSC. “Be a defensive driver and make safe decisions behind the wheel. Your life really depends on it.”<\/p>\n

(<\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/span>for details about Toyota restarting its plant in China.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

However, good news is on the way. Many of the aforementioned safety devices are finding their way into more and more vehicles, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.<\/p>\n

(To see more about Land Rover’s big bet on diesel engines, <\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/span>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The group notes 52% of new vehicle models are equipped with technology that warns the driver if a crash is imminent. That feature is shown to cut crashes by 7%, IIHS said. Another layer of safety feature — automatic braking — is also gaining traction with 27% of new models offering it: twice as many as just three years ago. It reduces accidents by 14%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Traffic fatalities are on the rise in the U.S. despite having safer cars leaving U.S. safety officials scrambling for answers. Find out more at TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4389,"featured_media":96695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[151],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98133"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4389"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98133"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=98133"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=98133"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=98133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}