Good News from NHTSA in 2015
January, 2015
NHTSA has published some good news on its programs over the years:
Saving an estimated 613,501 lives since 1960. See
“Lives Saved by Vehicle Safety Technologies & Associated Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, 1960 to 2012 Passenger Cars and LTV’s” (DOT HS 812 069): NHTSA began in 1975 to evaluate the effectiveness of vehicle safety technologiesassociated with the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. By June 2014, NHTSA had evaluated the effectiveness of virtually all the life-saving technologies introduced in passenger cars, pickup trucks, SUVs, and vans from about 1960 up through about 2010. The total number of estimated lives saved by these technologies and programs from 1960 to 2012 is 613,501.
So yes safety programs can save lives!
And we need to do more and better. See “Early Estimate of Motor Vehicle Traffic Fatalities for the First Half (Jan-Jun) of 2014” (DOT HS 812 093): A statistical projection of traffic fatalities for the first half of 2014 shows that an estimated 14,950 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes. This represents a decrease of about 2.2 percent as compared to the 15,294 fatalities that were reported to have occurred in the first half of 2013. Preliminary data reported by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) shows that vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in the first 6 months of 2014 increased by about 6.5 billion miles, or about a 0.4-percent increase.
You might think that President Obama might have thought this good news was worth mentioning in his State of the Union speech. Maybe next year…
Lou
