NU Online News Service, March 12, 3:11 p.m. EST
The announcement by federal authorities that traffic fatalities reported at the end of 2009 reached the lowest level since 1954 has little impact for auto insurers, an expert in the field said.
Robert Hartwig, president of the Insurance Information Institute noted that auto insurers losses result from "millions of other accidents that don't involve a fatality" or from non-accident events like theft.
Relatively few claims, he said are actually associated with highway fatalities, and of greater impact on insurer losses are the number of crash injuries.
Mr. Hartwig mentioned that the insurance industry has had a long-term commitment to promoting highway safety. Accident rates have been falling steadily since the 1970s, he noted and "the insurance industry played a very large role in that."
Both Mr. Hartwig and Anne McCartt, senior vice president for research Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, in Arlington, Va., said, however, that the major cause of the latest decrease was probably attributable to the recession's impact..
"I think that probably a very big factor would be the economy," said Ms. McCartt. Safer autos are a key factor, she noted, but she pointed out that even though motorist vehicle miles traveled rose "they were not the typical increases we've seen in the past.
"In the past, vehicle miles traveled just went up and up and up." In 2009, it increased by 0.2 percent. In an economic slump, she said there is less risky discretionary driving.
The U.S. Department of Transportation said according to early projections, the fatality rate, which takes into account the number of miles traveled, reached the lowest level ever recorded.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in a statement called the figures "exciting news, but there are still far too many people dying in traffic accidents. Drivers need to keep their hands on the steering wheel and their focus on the road in order to stay safe."
The projected fatality data for 2009 places the highway death count at 33,963, a drop of 8.9 percent as compared to the 37,261 deaths reported in 2008.
The fatality rate for 2009 declined to the lowest on record, to 1.16 fatalities per 100 million Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT), down from 1.25 fatalities per 100 million VMT in 2008.
"This continuing decline in highway deaths is encouraging, but our work is far from over," said National Highway Traffic Safety Administrator David Strickland. "We want to see those numbers drop further. We will not stop as long as there are still lives lost on our nation's highways."
He added the efforts must continue to stress seat belt use and to focus on reducing distracted and impaired driving.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration attributed the fatality decline to factors including high visibility campaigns like "Click It or Ticket" designed to increase seat belt use, and campaigns against drunk driving and distracted driving, and also to safer roads, safer vehicles and to motorists driving less.
The preliminary fatality statistics are online at http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811291.PDF
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