David Brown, a research associate at the University of Alabama’s Center for Advanced Public Safety, studied the state’s 2016 traffic fatality reports
and found an increase in fatalities involving high-speed crashes.
Last year, traffic deaths increased 6 percent to 40,200, according to preliminary estimates released on Wednesday
by the National Safety Council, a nonprofit organization that works closely with federal safety agencies.
After years of steady progress making highways safer, auto-safety advocates are voicing alarm
over a surge in traffic fatalities and fears that the deadly trend is strengthening.
We know what needs to be done; we just haven’t done it.”
In Alabama, for example, steady budget cuts have resulted in a decline in the number of troopers patrolling the state’s 103,000 miles of highways.
“Total crashes were up less than 5 percent but fatalities were up 25 percent,” he said in an interview.
Americans believe there is nothing we can do to stop crashes from happening, but
that isn’t true,” Deborah Hersman, the council’s president and chief executive, said in a statement.
The safety council’s figures typically closely track the fatality totals that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration compiles.
Rise in U. S. Traffic Deaths Reported for a Second Year -
By NEAL E. BOUDETTEFEB.