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Over 35,000 Americans killed as traffic deaths on rise in 2015

Xinhua, July 3, 2016 Adjust font size:

An estimated 35,200 Americans died in traffic accidents in 2015, an increase of 7.7 percent from a year before, according to newly-released government data.

Nine out of 10 regions within the United States had increased traffic deaths in 2015, shows the preliminary data released Friday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) under the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).

The NHTSA is analyzing the data to determine what factors contributed to the increase in traffic fatalities while aggressively testing new safety technologies and new ways to improve driver behavior, said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx.

Improved economy and falling gas prices were believed to be among major reasons for the increased traffic deaths in the United States last year.

However, NHTSA head Mark Rosekind said that improved economy only explains part of the increase as 94 percent of car crashes are caused by human behavior or error.

So the government needs to focus its efforts on improving human behavior while promoting vehicle technology that not only protects people in crashes, but helps prevent crashes in the first place, Rosekind said.

In response, the NHTSA has convened a series of six regional safety summits with key stakeholders throughout February and March.

As a result, the agency is working to develop new tools to deal with behavioral challenges and launch new initiatives to protect vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists.

The DOT is pressing forward with new guidance to promote the development of automated safety technologies which could greatly decrease the number of crashes.

In March, the DOT announced a key safety agreement with automakers requiring more than 99 percent of new vehicles to have automatic emergency braking standard by 2022. This could prevent thousands of crashes every year.

The DOT is also working to require vehicle-to-vehicle communications systems on new vehicles, and working with researchers on technologies that could prevent drunk driving. Endit