Car Accident Deaths Remained High Last Year

According to Fort Lauderdale car accident lawyer Joseph Lipsky, recent car accident data released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration demonstrates a mixed bag of news regarding wrongful deaths from car accidents. While the NHTSA’s statistics show that while car accident deaths were less in 2017, compared to the prior year, they were still the 2^nd highest over the past ten years. The reality is that more than thirty seven thousand drivers and passengers lost their lives in 2017; which represented a nearly two percent drop from the prior year.

In addition to the number of motorist deaths, sadly, the number of pedestrians and bicycle riders who died in car accidents remained overly high, at nearly six thousand. However, this too was a drop of almost two percent from the year before, but 2017 was the second most deadly year over the past thirty for pedestrians involved in car accidents.

Personal injury Lipsky agrees that the NHTSA’s figures are encouraging but do not under any circumstance represent a reason for celebration, as the overall trend of rising motorist and passenger deaths over the past decade remains alarmingly high. Common sense certainly shows that the increase in the number of distracted drivers, and those under the influence of alcohol or marijuana, which has since been legalized in Florida for medicinal purposes, remain a prevalent danger to both motorists and pedestrians. And while the statistics demonstrate that less than ten percent of traffic deaths are related to driver distraction, the NHTSA is the first to readily admit that the real number is certainly significantly higher. The primary reason for the inaccurate number of distracted driver accident can be attributed to the fact that drivers do not readily admit their use of smart phones, making it difficulty to adequate quantify the true number of drivers using their phones to talk or text while driving. We agree that this ever increasing problem warrants further investigation by the legislature to enact sensible laws, and by the police to enforce those laws already in effect, whose purpose is to properly discourage motorists from driving while distracted.

The downward trend in car accident deaths appears to have continued into 2018, as the data from the first six months of last year showed a further drop of slightly more than three percent in traffic fatalities. Unfortunately that still means more than seventeen thousand motorists lost their lives in the first half of last year, with too many from Florida. The NHTSA’s data also compares the number of car accident deaths to the number of miles driven by all motorists in the United States. By that calculation, because the number of miles driven rose in 2017, the ratio of traffic wrongful deaths reduced by nearly three percent, but again remained a one of the worst rates in over ten years.

The statistics reveal one thing, that those numbers on a page truly represent husbands, wives and children. The human toll shows why more must be done to reduce the number of traffic deaths. Whether through continuing technological innovations or increased regulations, a global effort must be made to stop the carnage on our roadways.