Recent Streetsblog USA posts about NHTSA

U.S. Traffic Fatalities Rising Fast — Especially Pedestrian and Cyclist Deaths

By Angie Schmitt | Jul 1, 2016 | 41 Comments

Traffic fatalities in America hit a seven-year high in 2015, with pedestrians and cyclists accounting for a disproportionate share of the alarming increase, according to preliminary data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Last year, 35,200 people were killed in traffic — a 7.7 percent increase over 2014 and the worst death toll since 2008. The number of people killed while […]

AAA: Distracted Driving Now Standard in New Cars, Thanks to In-Dash Devices

By Angie Schmitt | Oct 29, 2015 | 28 Comments

Distracted driving isn’t just about texting — it’s the mental effort of multi-tasking that makes people less alert and more dangerous behind the wheel. As hands-free devices like in-dash, voice-activated computer systems proliferate in new-model cars, they create additional risks. Using these devices can cause lingering distractions for up to 27 seconds after the task is completed, according to […]

How America’s Staggering Traffic Death Rate Became Matter-of-Fact

By Angie Schmitt | Sep 14, 2015 | 41 Comments

How did more than 30,000 annual motor vehicle deaths become something that most Americans accept as normal? A new paper by Boston University professor Itai Vardi tries to answer that question. Vardi reviewed American attitudes toward the problem of traffic deaths, starting in the early era of automobile growth, when there was a great deal of “moral panic” about […]

NHTSA Touts Decrease in Traffic Deaths, But 32,719 Ain’t No Vision Zero

By Tanya Snyder | Dec 22, 2014 | 18 Comments

Twenty-four-year-old Taja Wilson was killed near the Louisiana bayou in August when a driver swerved on the shoulder where she was walking. Noshat Nahian, age 8, was killed in a Queens crosswalk on his way to school in December by a tractor-trailer driver with a suspended license. Manuel Steeber, 37, was in a wheelchair when he was […]

8 Takeaways From the Bike League’s Study of Cyclist Fatalities

By Angie Schmitt | May 22, 2014 | 61 Comments

When someone is killed while riding a bike in the United States, the most follow-up you’ll usually see is a newspaper article or two. There’s rarely a trial or a detailed examination of what went wrong. The federal government tracks bike fatalities, but only to a limited extent. We don’t have great data about the […]

The Death Toll From Cars Is Even Higher Than You Thought

By Tanya Snyder | Apr 21, 2014 | 8 Comments

Ten days ago, four-year-old Zain Ali Hussain was killed near Houston when a neighbor backed his pickup truck over him. At least 50 times a week, people back their cars over kids in the U.S. On average, two of those 50 incidents are fatal. But you won’t see them represented in official crash statistics. Every year, the […]

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