
U.S. motor vehicle deaths see biggest two year jump in over 50 years, per NSC - JumpCrisscross
https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/15/u-s-motor-vehicle-deaths-see-biggest-two-year-jump-in-over-50-years-per-nsc/
======
finid
_also conducted a survey that indicates some possible causes for the steady
increases, including speed, texting via touch input or voice, as well as
driving while under the influence._

I think most of it can be attributed to cellphone usage while driving.

And now that most drivers choose to use their smartphones as GPS rather than a
dedicated GPS device, I think it's going to get much worse.

~~~
quicklyfrozen
I think some of it must be an unintended consequence of usage bans. People
still do it, they just keep the phone out of sight, and this keeps their
concentration off the road for longer. (And of course you can't type by feel
on a virtual keyboard.)

~~~
donatj
This. I text while driving very rarely, but when it was legal I would with my
arm straight ahead so I could see the road and my phone. My phone's now been
relegated to below the dash.

~~~
jasonkostempski
Stop fucking texting while driving!

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
Or, in the spirit of HN: texting while driving looks like an industry ripe for
disruption.

You have my permission to use this as your next start-up idea.

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grouseway
"it does advise accelerated standardization and introduction of features
including automatic emergency warning, blind spot monitoring and lane
departure warning systems"

If these things actually made a difference wouldn't vehicle deaths be falling
unless some other change is offsetting the difference?

~~~
dsp1234
_unless some other change is offsetting the difference?_

FTA:

"Many studies and observers cite the rise of mobile devices and their growing
role in our lives as a possible cause behind the recent spike in traffic
fatalities."

Anecdotally, in my area, teens often receive the current family car (which is
often 8+ years old), or one of the families secondary vehicles. Then another
vehicle is purchased for the parents, often new or a recent used vehicle. So
the vehicle with less up-to-date safety options goes to the family member that
is the least experienced driver.

~~~
quicklyfrozen
But that's always been the case, and today's 8 year old car is safer then it
was 10 or 20 years ago, so I wouldn't think this was causing an upward trend.

~~~
zardo
Maybe it was safer to T9 and drive.

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digitalneal
Wonder how much of this can be tied to the economy getting better and more
people buying/driving (used and less safe) cars when they previously couldn't
afford to.

~~~
toomuchtodo
Moving 12-Month Total Vehicle Miles Traveled

[https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M12MTVUSM227NFWA](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M12MTVUSM227NFWA)

~~~
sevensor
That's pretty convincing to me -- more miles driven means more driving deaths.
Also, it's not clear to me whether the statistic on motor vehicle deaths
includes collateral damage: cyclists and pedestrians killed by vehicles.
Either way, yikes, cars kill lots of people.

------
ouid
I haven't found a link to less generalized data. What were road/traffic/driver
conditions in the fatal accidents?

Were there more accidents, or were accidents themselves more fatal? What
percentage of fatalities involved a semi? Happened on freeways?

What if climate change is the culprit? Road conditions have deterioriated as a
result of changing weather patterns. Drivers have deteriorated as mobile
devices become more central to our lives. I doubt that the 8% increase in
fatalities is best explained by a 3% increase in miles traveled.

~~~
telot1
Unfortunately there isn't a standard way to collect this data on a national
level. Believe it or not its up to that local jurisdiction, or State (in the
case of state patrol) to dictate what information they gather and how it is
gathered. This makes comparisons and real statistical analysis quite
difficult.

Source: I'm in the traffic safety industry.

~~~
ouid
There is no federal database of traffic fatalities? In terms of human
resources we lose on the order of 150 billion (40000 <lives>*7,000,000
<$/life> /2 ) dollars a year in traffic fatalities. That's not including the
lost work from injuries. That's like 1% of the GDP. You would think that this
would be a good enough reason to at least compile a database of causes. Even
an incomplete one could be useful.

~~~
davito88
There is [https://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx](https://www-
fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx)

~~~
ouid
I meant a database of individual fatalities. That was probably not clear.

~~~
davito88
Ah. FARS does include data for each crash and each victim. It can be a mess to
dig through: [https://github.com/wgetsnaps/ftp.nhtsa.dot.gov--
fars](https://github.com/wgetsnaps/ftp.nhtsa.dot.gov--fars)

Also, California has their own database that includes all crashes in the state
down to crash/victim level:
[http://iswitrs.chp.ca.gov/Reports/jsp/userLogin.jsp](http://iswitrs.chp.ca.gov/Reports/jsp/userLogin.jsp)
(You have to create a free account)

There are other datasets too:
[http://opendata.stackexchange.com/questions/1755/automobile-...](http://opendata.stackexchange.com/questions/1755/automobile-
accident-data-in-the-us/1761#1761)

------
AJ007
Watch a busy street at night during heavy traffic. You can see from the light
shining off driver's faces that 40%~ of them are either using their phones or
another system while driving.

Given the proliferation of front-facing cameras and velocity sensors in all
iPhones and most Android devices, it is unconscionable that these devices
remain usable in these circumstances.

~~~
toss1941
I don't want my phone acting as my nanny with an always-on camera. If it
would, I'd sell it or break it faster than you can say 1984.

------
NickBusey
_automated enforcement for speed limit violations_

That is a concerning recommendation. How would this be achieved? GPS tracking?
Speed limit cameras? Both methods can have serious privacy implications.

~~~
oconnore
Automated enforcement of speed limit violations would be fine, as long as our
speed limits were adjusted for strict enforcement versus human enforcement.

Almost everyone will drive 35-40 in a 30, but you could make a case that
anyone breaking 45-50mph for more than a few seconds should automatically get
a ticket. Even better, the automated enforcement could account for actual
danger, using road conditions, traffic density, and pedestrians: you can do
15+ if the road is empty, but you had better slow _way_ down for a stroller in
the crosswalk, etc.

~~~
stronglikedan
> Almost everyone will drive 35-40 in a 30

I used to, until I learned this [0]:

> If someone is hit by a car at 40 mph they are 90% likely to be killed.

> If someone is hit by a car at 30 mph they are 50% likely to be killed.

> If someone is hit by a car at 20 mph they are 10% likely to be killed.

[0][http://www.safespeed.org.uk/killspeed.html](http://www.safespeed.org.uk/killspeed.html)

~~~
closeparen
This is a great reason not to speed in residential or downtown areas where
there are pedestrians around.

We're most likely to get speed cameras on major roads and freeways, where
pedestrians are rare to nonexistent and have no expectation of being yielded
to, as you might with a crosswalk on a 25mph road.

------
mac01021
How can you write an article about this without any discussion of the trend in
automobile accidents (including nonfatal ones) as well as the trend in miles
driven per year? Counting traffic deaths without any explanatory context
simply raises a lot of questions to which I don't have time to research the
answers.

------
ratsbane
Does anyone know if (and where) it's possible to download a data set of all
car accidents (or just fatals) for the last few years? I'd like to see things
like date and time, weather conditions, lat/lon, make and model of cars
involved, etc.

~~~
davito88
All 50 states (and territories), only fatal crashes, goes back to the 1970s:
[https://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx](https://www-
fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx) available via ftp or here:
[https://github.com/wgetsnaps/ftp.nhtsa.dot.gov--
fars](https://github.com/wgetsnaps/ftp.nhtsa.dot.gov--fars)

All California crashes, fatal to no injury, goes back a few years at least:
[http://iswitrs.chp.ca.gov/Reports/jsp/userLogin.jsp](http://iswitrs.chp.ca.gov/Reports/jsp/userLogin.jsp)
(You have to create a free account)

Overall these data sets have been pretty well studied for the past few
decades. The results are well documented: e.g. 6pm to midnight is the
deadliest time, young males are the riskiest, older drivers are also risky,
etc. Weather can actually be good for safety because people often drive slower
and there are fewer cars on the road in bad conditions. But yes, weather can
be a factor too.

------
mnglkhn2
Along with the absolutely horrific case where the driver uses a smart phone
WHILE driving, from my personal observation, another component is the one
where a lot of drivers will immediately hop on their devices as soon as they
reach a temporary stop, be it at a street light or an intersection. This
creates a lot of delays and confusion in traffic due to the fact the driver is
actively incapacitated in participating in traffic.

In this environment, having a car that has active collision control/prevention
mechanisms is more and more a necessity.

------
cowkingdeluxe
Link to actual press release from NSC:
[http://www.nsc.org/NewsDocuments/2017/12-month-
estimates.pdf](http://www.nsc.org/NewsDocuments/2017/12-month-estimates.pdf)

Shows the per population and per mileage driven death rates have increased as
well.

------
dawnerd
Need stricter tests for getting a license. There's people up here in Portland
that just change lanes whenever they feel like it. It's like people just don't
care enough to drive safely. If you leave a big enough gap someone will just
race in to take it.

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rodionos
CA crash stats, with breakdown by motor vehicle type, age:
[https://cdan.nhtsa.gov/SASStoredProcess/guest#](https://cdan.nhtsa.gov/SASStoredProcess/guest#)

------
nayuki
It's kind of funny how the article is using a picture of Toronto for a US
topic. Also, I wonder if Pokémon GO can be blamed for some of this increase in
motor vehicle deaths.

