NHTSA: Truck-related fatalities jump 4.1% in 2015

The overall rate of fatal crashes involving passenger vehicles increased for the first time in three years to 1.12 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles travelled, according to a recent report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.    The rate of fatal crashes involving heavy-duty trucks in the United States jumped 4.1 percent in 2015 compared with the previous year, according to a recent report from the Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
   The report said there were a total of 4,067 fatalities in crashes involving large trucks, the highest number since 2008.
   Of those fatalities, 16.4 percent were occupants of large trucks, 10.1 percent were non-occupants, and the remaining 73.5 percent were occupants of other vehicles.
   NHTSA said the overall rate of fatal crashes involving passenger vehicles increased for the first time in three years to 1.12 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles travelled (VMT). The overall fatality rate was up 3.7 percent from 1.08 per million VMT in 2014, the lowest fatality rate since the administration began tracking fatality trends.
   In total, 35,092 people were killed in vehicle crashes in the U.S. in 2015, a 7.2 percent increase from 2014, the largest increase in highway fatalities since 1966, according to the report.
   NHTSA attributed the increase in part to a 3.5 percent year-over-year uptick in overall vehicle miles traveled, as well as increased crashes resulting in fatalities caused by driver distraction (up 8.8 percent), alcohol-impaired fatalities (up 3.2 percent), and speeding-related fatalities (up 3 percent). Fatalities resulting from drowsy driving in 2015, on the other hand, decreased 3.2 percent from the previous year.
   In response to the increase, DOT, NHTSA and the White House are issuing a call to action to involve a wide range of stakeholders in helping determine the causes of the increase. NHTSA said it will share its Fatality Analysis Reporting System with safety partners, state and local officials, technologists, data scientists and policy experts, while private sector partners using new data collection technologies will give the government access to unprecedented amounts of data and new visualizations tools.
   “From his first day in office, the President has been a leading voice to ensure that the transformative power of data and technology is used to help address some of our toughest challenges,” DOT said in a statement. “The journey toward zero deaths on our roads will be a long one, but data will provide the guiding lights to take us there.
   “DOT is aggressively seeking ways to improve safety on the roads. From our work with the auto industry to improve vehicle safety, to new solutions to behavioral challenges like drunk, drugged, distracted and drowsy driving, we know we need to find novel solutions to old challenges.
   “The data tells us that people die when they drive drunk, distracted or drowsy, or if they are speeding or unbuckled,” said NHTSA Administrator Dr. Mark Rosekind. “While there have been enormous improvements in many of these areas, we need to find new solutions to end traffic fatalities.”