United States Government Saves a Million Lives Using Increased Safety Spending

This began as a response to ATS member pause4thought's Road Traffic Accidents: a REAL threat - an outline of road traffic accidents' worldwide impact, but it transformed into an analysis on United States' road traffic accidents relative to spending on traffic safety.

While pause4thought asks why would governments truly concerned about public safety not do more to reduce the annual carnage caused by traffic accidents, I've concluded that the United States' government is doing more each year to reduce annual traffic fatalities.

In pause4thought's OP, I noticed a trend of decreasing fatalities, injuries, and serious injuries between 1996 and 1998. Interested in whether this trend continued, I checked the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's report on Traffic Fatalities in 2010 for the United States.

According to the report:

...the number and rate of traffic fatalities in 2010 fell to the lowest levels since 1949, despite a significant increase in the number of miles Americans drove during the year.

[...]

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) early projections, the number of traffic fatalities fell three percent between 2009 and 2010, from 33,808 to 32,788. Since 2005, fatalities have dropped 25 percent, from a total of 43,510 fatalities in 2005. The same estimates also project that the fatality rate will be the lowest recorded since 1949, with 1.09 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, down from the 1.13 fatality rate for 2009. The decrease in fatalities for 2010 occurred despite an estimated increase of nearly 21 billion miles in national vehicle miles traveled.

In fact, a glance at the Department of Transportations data on fatalities due to Motor Vehicle Crashes shows a declining trend since 1967. (Source: Department of Transportation) I've included a graphical representation illustrating the decline.



This decline in traffic fatalities has occurred despite the rise in distance travelled by vehicles and increasing numbers in population.

(Image Source: Department of Transportation)

In pause4thoughts quotation of Crashtest.com regarding International injury and fatality statistics, the statement that 1% of the US Department of Transportation (DOT) budget is used on Traffic safety. Below I have outlined that, while the traffic safety budget still remains near 1% of the total DOT budget, it has increased by over 100% in 11 years while the US population has only increased by 12%. Also, while the relative portion of the budget may appear low, appearing near one percent, note there has been an increase of over 21.5 percent in the relative portion of the budget over the course of 11 years. Further more taking dollars spent alone there has been an increase in spending on traffic safety of over 113.5% over the course of 11 years.

Traffic safety programs in 2010 recieved 867 million dollars from a 73,248 million dollar budget US Department of Transportation(approximately 1.18 percent). Compare this to 1999 levels in which the DOT budget proposed 406 million dollars for a 41,849 million dollar budget Government Printing Office(approximately 0.97 percent).

A per capita analysis shows that the amount spent per person increased from $1.49 to $2.80 between 1999 and 2011. (Figured using the population numbers 272,690,813 (US Census) in 1999 to 309,349,689 (US Census) along with the budget numbers in the preceding paragraph.

So it seems very clear that the United States government is decreasing the number of fatalities due to traffic accidents with spending dollars and if trends continue, will continue to prevent fatalities in the future.

But what do you think? Is there something else contributing to the decline in traffic accident fatalities?

nice thread still going through the information.

SnF for sure.

But what do you think? Is there something else contributing to the decline in traffic accident fatalities?

ehm yeah.

traffic jams.

pretty hard to kill someone going 3 mph

Don't you think the increased safety ratings and mechanisms in newer car models had anything to do with the dropping fatality rates?

I would propose that is the main contributing factor to lowering it.

Also we need to consider increased driver awareness and training as well.

Originally posted by kn0wh0w
traffic jams.

pretty hard to kill someone going 3 mph

That actually seems kinda reasonable.

Thank you and Happy Thanksgiving.

Originally posted by muzzleflash
Don't you think the increased safety ratings and mechanisms in newer car models had anything to do with the dropping fatality rates?

I would propose that is the main contributing factor to lowering it.

Also we need to consider increased driver awareness and training as well.

You know what? I'm going to look through increased safety ratings and mechanisms in new car models because that seems like an excellent possibility. It's certainly the reason SUVs reached 5-star safety ratings. Improvements such as side air bags and designs centered around increased stability got rid of that whole "SUVs will roll over!" mantra.

While driver awareness and training may contribute, I wonder if safety funding would help contribute to those factors.

I'll make sure to research the relationship between increased safety in vehicle designs and the decrease in fatalities.

Thanks and Happy Thanksgiving!

I am having trouble finding resources that detail exactly what year or years it became mandatory in most states to take driver's education courses before getting a licence. I found a lot of information about it but nothing really detailing dates for each state (if they ever passed a law like that).

I recall many old timers claiming they never had driver's education so it should be worth looking into.

You could say that government regulations had something to do with it, that's reasonable because often times they force companies to adhere to these requirements (depending).

Also check out this wiki link:
Seat Belt legislation in the USA

Most seat belt legislation in the United States is left to the states. However, the first seat belt law was a federal law which took effect on January 1, 1968 that required all vehicles (except buses) to be fitted with seat belts in all designated seating positions. This law has since been modified to require three-point seat belts in outboard seating positions, and finally three-point seat belts in all seating positions. Initially, seat belt use was not compulsory. New York was the first state to pass a law which required vehicle occupants to wear seat belts, a law that came into effect on December 1, 1984.

This is definitely a piece of the puzzle, but how effective and important were these laws? That's still in dispute it appears according to the resources.

Also notice that the first federal law took effect in 1968, just as the diagram you provided begins. This matches up fairly well.

By chance do we have any available statistics of crash mortality rates prior to 1967?

Originally posted by muzzleflash
I am having trouble finding resources that detail exactly what year or years it became mandatory in most states to take driver's education courses before getting a licence. I found a lot of information about it but nothing really detailing dates for each state (if they ever passed a law like that).

[...]

Also check out this wiki link:
Seat Belt legislation in the USA

Most seat belt legislation in the United States is left to the states. However, the first seat belt law was a federal law which took effect on January 1, 1968 that required all vehicles (except buses) to be fitted with seat belts in all designated seating positions. [...]

[...]

By chance do we have any available statistics of crash mortality rates prior to 1967?

edit on 24-11-2011 by muzzleflash because: (no reason given)

(Pardon my ellipses. Just trying to get it to the meat (though I admit my effort is subjective)

Awesome find with the seat belt legislation. I found a graph that shows crash mortality rates and volume starting at 1950. It appears that there was a steady decline from 1950 onward in the fatality rate. Department of Transportation

It's arguable, but paying attention to the decline following 1968, I'd say that legislation coincides with a sharp seven year decline in the fatality rate. The decline just started happening a couple years before, so I wonder if any states enacted seatbelt laws before the federal law was made.

Note the increase between 1960 and 1966. It's possible that states created seatbelt laws and the nation followed. I'm going to look into that.

Nice find and nice theory! I'm starring that with enthusiasm.

I'm still looking for something on mandatory driver's education, and I'll be going over your links in depth. Thanks and Happy Thanksgiving.

And kills millions cutting funds from somewhere else.