NHTSA Says 2015 Is Shaping Up To Be A Deadly Year For Drivers - Washington Post
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has issued some very early traffic fatality stats for 2015, and we hate to break it to you, but they don't look so good. But as you can see from the chart above, preliminary figures for the first three months of 2015 show around 7,500 deaths, significantly higher than last year's estimated 6,850. (Final numbers from 2014 should be published around December. READ: Ford Escape Vs. Honda CR-V: Compare Cars. In fact, during the first quarter of the year, Americans put around 9. 8 billion miles on their odometers. However, that's just 3. 8 percent above the first three months of 2014. If traffic volume were solely to blame for the rise in fatalities, you'd expect the number of deaths to tick up 3. 8 percent, too. As a result, the fatality rate is also up. Last year, the U. S. had 0. 99 roadway deaths per million miles driven. According to NHTSA, the first quarter of 2015 had a rate of 1. 04 deaths per million miles. The good news is, that's far below the rate recorded ten years ago, which was 1. 32 in the first quarter of 2005. It's even below the sharp uptick seen in 2012, which was 1. 08 deaths per million miles traveled. Fatalities and the fatality rate have both dropped in recent years, with very. Source: www.washingtonpost.com
