Accident & Injury Law in Texas

Posts Tagged ‘statistics’

Traffic fatalities in Texas dropped 11 percent in 2009 to the lowest number since 1993, according to data released Tuesday by the Texas Department of Transportation.

Last year, 3,089 drivers or passengers died in traffic-related incidents, 388 fewer than in 2008.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration attributes the decline to safer vehicles, safer roads and motorists driving less.

Officials also cite public safety campaigns about seat belt usage, drunken driving and distracted driving.

Officials say motorcycle deaths were down 19 percent in 2009, to 432. In 2008, 531 people died in motorcycle wrecks.

The number of people dying on the highways is the lowest since the 1950s despite runaway Toyotas and teen drivers texting.

The U.S. Transportation Department said Thursday that its estimates show total traffic deaths declined nearly 9 percent in 2009 — to 33,963. That’s the lowest toll since 1954. In 2008, an estimated 37,261 people died on the roadways.

The newest numbers fit into a trend of decreases since 2005, when an estimated 43,510 people were killed.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration credits the decline to more people wearing seat belts, programs to discourage drunken driving and cars built with better safety features.

A sour economy that dampened travel also likely helped.

Side air bags are becoming standard equipment on many new vehicles. And electronic stability control, which helps motorists avoid rollover crashes, is increasingly common on new cars and trucks.

“We knew that those technologies would be reducing fatalities,” said Anne McCartt, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s senior vice president for research. She also said an increase in seat belt use could be a factor. Seat belt use rose to 84 percent in 2009, partly because of state crackdowns on drivers not using seat belts.

States have also pushed tougher laws to reduce drunken driving.

In spite of the progress, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood cautioned that “there are still far too many people dying in traffic accidents. Drivers need to keep their hands on the steering wheel and their focus on the road.”

The federal government has sought to curb distracted driving, urging states to adopt stringent laws against sending text messages from behind the wheel, as well as other distractions.

Part of the decrease in fatalities is credited to the economic downturn, which has fewer people out on the road. This theory is in line with similar patterns from the early 1980s and early 1990s, when difficult economic, conditions led many drivers to cut back on discretionary travel, and traffic deaths decreased.

The number of miles traveled by U.S. drivers in 2009 grew by 6.6 billion, or 0.2 percent, according to preliminary data from the Federal Highway Administration, But this follows a dip in vehicle miles traveled in 2008 and 2007, when the economy was tanking.

Still, safety officials say the rate of deaths per 100 million miles traveled also dropped to a record low. It fell to 1.16 in 2009, compared with the past record low of 1.25 in 2008.

The risk of dying in a traffic crash has dropped nearly 18 percent since 2005, according to preliminary statistics released by the Transportation Department, although experts say they are not sure why. The recession and gas prices have reduced the number of miles traveled, and perhaps cutting average speed, at least for part of the period.  Government officials and other experts also cited safer highways, higher seat belt use, added safety features in newer vehicles, and teen license restrictions.

Texas law already requires buckling up in the front seat, and starting September 1, it’ll be the law to do so in the back seat, too.

The change affects people 17 and older; those 16 and under are already required to wear a seat belt in the back seat.

Getting the measure passed into law was something of a bumpy. ride. that involved Austin’s state senator and police chief.

Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo, who is in his 24th year in law enforcement, said that years of seeing crash scenes in which seat belts made a critical difference inspired him to push the bill at the Capitol.

He said he was especially moved by a crash that happened in late April, after he’d begun lobbying for the measure. Round Rock High School student Raven Mayes, a member of the Marine Corps Junior ROTC and the Dragonettes Dance Team, died after the SUV she was riding in crashed into an 18-wheeler and rolled on Interstate 35. Mayes, riding in the back seat, was ejected, Acevedo said.

Statewide in 2008, 183 people, died — and 4,046 were injured — while riding without a seat belt in the back seat of a vehicle that crashed; according to the Texas Department of Transportation.

As of June 2008, 20 states and the District of Columbia required adults to use seat belts in all seats, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Offenders — drivers or passengers, depending on the situation — could be fined $25 to $50 if an adult is not buckled up in the back seat. Offenders can already be fined $100 to $200 if a child is not buckled up in the back seat.

There were 95 traffic fatalities in Travis County in 2008, up slightly from 2007, according to’ law enforcement records.

On roads within the City of Austin, there  were 59 deaths last year.

Investigators saw a rise in motorcycle-related deaths, spurred by a summer of nearly $4-per-gallon gas, Austin police Detective Mark Breckenridge said.  “We had quite a few (fatalities) among new or inexperienced riders,” Breckenridge said.  “The high, gas prices put a lot of people on motorcycles.”

The number of motorcycle deaths rose from 15 in 2007 to 22 in 2008.

Eighteen of those were within Austin city limits, Breckenridge said. Six of those killed wore helmets, he said. Sixteen were drivers, and two were passengers.

The number of deaths of pedestrians and bicyclists declined. There were 25 pedestrians killed in 2007 and 18 in 2008. The number of bicyclists killed fell to one last year from two the year before.

The deadliest hour was between 2 and 3 a.m., when 17 of the fatalities occurred. In 2007, 12 fatal wrecks occurred during that hour.
Outside the city limits last year, there were 36 traffic deaths, up from 33 in 2007, according to Texas Department of Public Safety records.

Among them was a March double fatality on U.S. 290 East in Manor in which 18-year-old Jared Michael Blue and 41-year-old Andres Carrera were killed, In February, three teenagers — Audrey Ducote, 16, Lauren Hoffman, 17, and Randall Hibler, 16 — were killed in a wreck on Texas 71 in western Travis County near Bee Creek Road, the site of several crashes.

Around the globe, accidents kill 830,000 children annually – equivalent to all the children in Chicago, according to a report issued by the World Health Organization and UNICEF.

The report, the first to collect all known data on child injuries worldwide, makes broad estimates because many poor countries gather few health statistics, and many children are hurt or killed without ever seeing a doctor.

Though 95 percent of all injuries to children occur in poor and middle-income countries, injuries account for 40 percent of all child deaths in rich ones.

By teen years, road injuries become major killers in poor countries as in rich ones.  In the 15 to 19 age group, for example, the leading cause of death is traffic accidents.

In the United States, accidents kill 12,175 children a year – more than all diseases combined, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control.  Car crashes were the leading cause in the U.S., except for children age 4 or less.

A new state program will allow friends and relatives of people killed in drunken driving wrecks in Texas to buy memorial signs that will be placed near the crash site for a year.

The $300 signs will be 42 inches high and 48 inches wide, with a blue background and white lettering and have the victim’s name, the wreck date, and the phrases “Please Don’t Drink and Drive” and “In Memory of” on them.  The $300 covers the cost of making the sign and putting it up which will be placed as close as possible to the crash site.

According to the Texas Department of Transportation, Texas had more than 1,670 fatalities in 2006 that involved drivers who were under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

The program applies only to people killed by impaired drivers.  Impaired drivers who were killed in a crash will not be eligible.  Also, to be eligible, the victims must have been killed on a state-maintained road.

A recent article in the Austin American Statesman reveals that teen drivers in rural areas are at a greater risk of being involved in an accident that their urban counterparts. The article was based on a study by the Texas Transportation Institute released Tuesday which shows, among other things that rural teens are more likely to:

• Drive in a car packed with several other teens
• Drive after 10 p.m.
• Talk on a cell phone or send text messages while driving
• Drive without a seat belt
• Speed and street race

This may be why 65 percent of teen driving fatalities in 2006 occurred on rural roads. According to Russell Henk of the transportation institute, higher speed limits on most rural roads, lack of congestion, and a feeling that “nothing is going to happen to me” creates a higher danger risk for urban teens.

Texas leads the nation in auto fatalities and about 500 Texas teens die in crashes each year. Teen drivers are also involved in 22 percent of the state’s car crashes.

The study by the Texas Transportation Institute was based on the driving habits of more than 4,400 teens from 17 high schools across the state and included an analysis of teens’ perceptions of factors that cause car wrecks and included the following findings:

• Fewer than 1 percent of Texas teens understand that driving at night is unsafe even though it is the most dangerous activity a driver can engage in.
• Only a third of teens recognize the dangers of driving while talking or texting on a cell phone.
• Rural teens were far less likely to name alcohol or drugs as a factor behind crashes than urban teens.
• Rural teens were three times more likely to get speeding tickets
• Rural teens were twice as likely to drive while using cell phones.

Technorati Tags: teen, driving, rural, risky behaviour

Powered by ScribeFire.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, Texas led the country last year in the number of drunken driving fatalities with 1,354 drunken driving deaths last year (up from 34 in 2005).

Texas tied Arizona and Kansas for the largest increase in the number of fatalities while Utah, Kansas, and Iowa had the largest percentage increase.

According to the Department of Transportation, there were 13,470 deaths nationwide involving drivers or motorcycle operators with blood-alcohol levels of .08 or higher last year, the legal limit for adults in the United States. That was a slight drop from the 13,582 fatalities the year before.

Twenty-two states had more drunken driving fatalities than in the previous year while the numbers fell in 28 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Florida saw the largest drop in the number of drunken driving deaths, down 147 from its 2005 total of 1,106.

Federal transportation officials announced the statistics as they unveiled an $11 million nationwide advertising campaign against drunk driving, under the slogan “Drunk Driving. Over the Limit. Under Arrest.” They also announced plans to launch a national law enforcement crackdown.

According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, 97 percent of Americans view drunk driving as a threat to their families and themselves.

Some of the worst accidents I have seen or heard of involve drunk drivers and it is unbelievable that over 13,000 people have to pay the ultimate price for another person’s poor decisions.