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This morning, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (a.k.a. NHTSA but pronounce it as “NiTSA“) publicized the fact that it is Workzone Awareness Week.
There can be no doubt that this is an important issue because, for example, in 2014 (the most-recent, detailed figures available), no fewer than 669 people were killed in construction zone incidents.
The incidents which generations of people have grown up calling “road accidents” or “highway accidents” are wrongly named — they need to be referred to as crashes or collisions — but if this sounds like nothing more than silly word-play and semantics to you, read on, because there is a very important reason behind it.
Over 4,500 people are killed each year in the USA in road collisions that involve semi tractor-trailers and other large trucks, and the majority of those killed are in smaller vehicles which, for whatever reason, are simply too close to the truck concerned.
Continue reading “Keep Clear of Semi Tractor-Trailers at Intersections and Tight Curves”
The USA is unique in measuring deaths-by-distance-travelled per 100 million miles, which is referred to as the “Vehicle Miles Traveled” [VMT] rate. The rest of the international community, on the other hand, use one billion vehicle kilometres [“billion VKT”] for the metric, and that is the case in the following list. (View an easy method to convert the US VMT rate to the international figures.)
Continue reading “Latest Multi-National VMT Road Death Rates – USA Makes Least Progress 1990-2015”
In monitoring its road safety standards, the USA prefers to use “deaths per 100 million Vehicle Miles Travelled” [VMT] rate, rather than the measure used by every other country, which is the “deaths per billion vehicle kilometres” [billion VKT] rate.
Does this matter? Does it make any difference? The answer is yes, it certainly does, even if only psychologically. For anyone who does not know much about road safety it means that America’s rate cannot readily be compared with the rates in other countries. This is a pity because frankly America’s rate of deaths measured against distance travelled has long been, or at least should have long been, a national embarrassment which the powers-that-be apparently do not want the American people to understand, and the tiny numbers that are used to indicate each year’s VMT rate make it look like there’s no problem at all. But this apparently deliberate keeping people in the dark needs to stop.
So, first of all, let’s get the math out of the way that allows the VMT rate to be converted to the standard, global rate, in order that everyone can understand the situation.
Firstly, one billion kilometres is 621,371,192 miles, so divide that by 100 million and the answer is 6.214, so whenever you see the VMT rate published, you just multiply it by 6.214 and you will have the internationally-recognized billion kilometre [billion VKT] rate. Then, and only then, can you truly compare America’s road safety performance with the other ~29 developed nations of the world that along with the USA are members of the OECD*.
If you now look at Latest Multi-National VMT Road Death Rates – USA Makes Least Progress 1990-2015, you will see that not only does the USA lie in an extremely disappointing 18th place out of the 23 applicable countries for the year 2015 (the current latest figures) and has a billion-VKT death rate that is more than double the rate of the leading nations, but also — when the results are measured from the 25 years from 1990-2015, the USA has made dramatically less progress in cutting deaths than any other applicable country on the list.
From the figures, it can be seen that, if the USA could match the current, top billion-VKT results (i.e. Norway), approximately 22,000 lives would have been saved in road crashes in America in 2015 and even more in 2016 and 2017, because the number of deaths is increasing, year-on-year. [Note: This is a different result to the lives that could be saved if the U.S. were able to match the leading nations’ per capita rates, but given the way that countries’ rates do vary quite widely when using the various different metrics, this situation is not unusual.]
Footnote
*OECD — Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Figures released by the USDOT on October 6, 2017, show that 37,461 lives were lost on U.S. roads in 2016, an increase of 5.6 percent from calendar year 2015. This followed an inaccurate estimation earlier this year by the National Safety Council [NSC] that the figure would be approximately 40,200.
In the context of the NSC’s miscalculation, the lower, more recent, and obviously more accurate figure from the USDOT and NHTSA is a relief but the situation is still very bad news. Apart from the 5.6% increase in fatalities from 2015-2016, the fact is that since 2014 the number of deaths on America’s roads and highways has soared swiftly upwards from 32,744 to 37,461, a two-year increase of 14.4 percent, representing almost 5,000 “extra” deaths in 2016 alone.
Continue reading “Over 37,000 People were Killed on America’s Roads and Highways in 2016”
Rate(a) . Country
Source: ITF / OECD (colored groupings added by ADoNA)
Footnotes:
(a) Rate of road deaths per 100,000 members of the national population
(b) Iceland and Luxembourg experience the most inconsistent annual rates due to their very small population sizes
(c) Statistics published by the USDOT on October 6, 2017, show that during 2016 US road deaths increased by a further 5.6 percent and the per capita rate of deaths rose to 11.59 — See: Over 37,000 People were Killed on America’s Roads and Highways in 2016
(d) 2014 data (OECD)
Also see: Latest Multi-National VMT Road Death Rates – USA Makes Least Progress 1990-2015
Numbering in the left-hand column is only for easy reference. Countries with identical rates should not be separated or ranked by this.
Green text: A rate under 3
Orange text: A rate less than double that of the leading country
Purple text: A rate 2-4 times greater than that of the leading country
Red text: A ‘per capita’ rate more than four times higher than that of the leading country
A lost life — any lost life — is a tragedy, and road accidents* are a massive killer, so my title for this post is by no means meant to be annoying or offensive to anybody.
This topic comes from my former home city of Buffalo, NY, so in more ways than one it is a subject dear to my heart.
The original article is “Groups opposed to traffic safety checkpoints to sue Buffalo police,” from the Buffalo News.
Continue reading “Road Safety: In what way do “Black Lives Matter” the most?”
Excerpt: “U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao on Tuesday defended her department’s decision to use voluntary guidelines instead of enforceable rules to regulate self-driving cars, saying a flexible approach was best for an emerging technology. Chao also said the Trump administration would give preference in its forthcoming infrastructure plan to projects that promise technology innovation that could improve safety or advance the deployment of autonomous vehicles…
Continue reading “The USDOT will Apply Only Voluntary Rules For Self-Driving Cars… Astounding!”
Bicycles are involved in many crashes, injuries and deaths, and there should be a focus on preventing these events from happening.
With support from the Danish foundation TrygFonden, the Traffic Research Group at Aalborg University has completed the first randomised controlled trial (RCT) of the safety effect of high-visibility bicycle clothing.
Continue reading “For Bicyclists, Wearing a Yellow Reflective Jacket Cuts Injuries by up to 55%”