Good News: Auto Accident Deaths down 8.9% in 2009 (price, cause)

[mysticaltyger]

I just thought I'd post a bit of good news since so many of these forums are doom and gloom. I've contributed to that gloom at times, myself.

So I just thought I'd post some good news. Auto accident deaths dropped to 33,963 in 2009, the lowest on record. (By way of comparison, the US has around 16,000 murders every year). The rate of deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled also dropped to a record low of 1.16.

The death toll has dropped every quarter for the last 15 quarters, which is also a record. There haven't been that many consecutive quarterly declines since they've been keeping records in 1975. Typically when gas prices spike, auto accident deaths drop because people drive less (and some probably drive slower on the highways to conserve fuel).

Here's the link for statistics junkies:

http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811291.PDF

Let's hope we can keep this going!!!