The U.S. has fallen behind other high income nations in reducing traffic fatalities and injuries, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Research Council, which studied accident data in the U.S. and 15 other countries.
From 1995 to 2009 the number of fatalities dropped 52% in France, 38% in the United Kingdom, and 25% in Australia, while U.S. fatalities dropped just 19%, and even when measured by per vehicle mile, the study said, the U.S. lags in addressing its fatality rate, NRC said.
Despite the report’s findings, the number of highway crash deaths involving large trucks plummeted 20% in 2009 to 3,380, the third straight year it has set a record low, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in September. (Click here for previous story.)
The decline was the fourth in four years and represented the largest year-to-year drop since such records have been kept. And while overall highway fatalities involving all vehicles also dropped last year, the number involving heavy trucks fell much more sharply.
The NRC report said that before 1990, the U.S. fatality rate per vehicle mile was “among the best…but has been below the median rate of the group every year since 2001.”
The U.S. could reduce traffic fatalities by adopting safety strategies that are proving effective in the other nations: better highway design, more roadside sobriety testing, and stricter seatbelt laws. Only 20 states require rear seat passengers to buckle up, the report said.
The NRC is part of the National Academies, a federal government entity that includes the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine.
