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America’s road-safety record is the worst in the rich world

America’s road deaths rose by the highest annual percentage increase in 50 years

By THE DATA TEAM

LOWER petrol prices and a healthier economy meant more people took to the roads in America last year—and more people died on them. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), just over 35,000 people were killed in crashes in 2015. That was 7% more than in 2014, the biggest annual percentage increase since 1965.

By most counts America has the worst road-safety record in the rich world. Its rate of 10.9 deaths per 100,000 people per year is almost twice as high as Belgium’s, the next-worst well-off country, and roughly level with that of Mexico. One of the main reasons that the United States sits atop this grim ranking is because Americans drive far more often than the rich-world average. When miles travelled are taken into account, America was actually a bit safer than Japan, Slovenia and Belgium in 2013 (the most recent year with comparable data). In addition, the United States also has a relatively high share of rural roads, which often have poor lighting, road markings and safety barriers.

On the other hand, most other countries have made better progress than America has in recent years. In 2000 Slovenia’s death rate per person was higher than America’s; by 2013 it was 40% lower. Sweden, which in 1997 introduced a plan to reduce fatal crashes to zero, now has the safest roads in the world. Such was the success of the Swedish “Vision Zero” campaign that several American cities have recently adopted its policies, which include adapting roads for safety rather than speed and separating vulnerable road users such as cyclists from cars. The latter point is crucial. Thanks to better anti-lock brakes, airbags and side-impact protections, cars have become far safer, while other road users have not benefited from similar advances. As a result, car users’ share of road deaths in America fell from 42% in 2006 to 36% last year, while fatalities outside of cars (cyclists, pedestrians and motorcyclists) rose from a quarter of the total to a third.

But even technological improvements cannot always mitigate the biggest cause of automotive fatalities: people. Mark Rosekind, head of the NHTSA, says 94% of crashes “can be tied back to human choice or error”. Fully 85% of the people who perished on America’s roads last year either were not wearing a seat belt or were in accidents where a driver had been speeding or drinking. Airbags and rollbars can only do so much. Experts’ advice is the same as ever: slow down, and sober and buckle up.

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