Is there an answer to the increasing fatal accident rate?

Motor vehicle accidents are the talk of the town, and for good reason in the wake of a shocking new report from the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The new statistics come from a review of the 2016 data, and it shows yet another startling increase in the number of deaths that are happening in accidents on the road.

The NHTSA reported last year that 2015 showed an 8.4 percent increase in the number of traffic fatalities when compared to 2014. That increase was the largest jump in the statistic since 1963 to 1964. While the increase from 2015 to 2016 wasn’t nearly as high, it is just as significant. 2016 saw a 5.6 percent increase in the number of fatal traffic accidents.

There were two areas where this increase in fatal accidents were particularly noticeable. The first is motorcycle accidents, which saw a spike of 5.1 percent. The second and more dramatic area that saw an increase was pedestrian accidents. 492 more pedestrians died in 2016 than in 2015, which is an increase of 9 percent. The number of pedestrians that died in traffic accidents in 2016 is the highest since 1990.

So much of the data in this report is disheartening, and it only strengthens the idea that you have to be extremely focused and aware when you are on the road — may you be a driver, a pedestrian, or a bicyclist. When accidents do happen, get in touch with an attorney.

Source: NHTSA, “2016 Fatal Motor Vehicle Crashes: Overview,” Accessed Oct. 19, 2017