Facts + Statistics: Highway safety

The cost and crashworthiness of vehicles as well as drivers’ safety habits affect the cost of auto insurance. Out of concern for public safety and to help reduce the cost of crashes, insurers support safe driving initiatives. The insurance industry is a major supporter of anti-drunk driving and seatbelt usage campaigns.

 

Lives saved by safety devices

• Airbags: Airbags are designed to inflate in moderate to severe frontal crashes. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) says that as of 2013 there were 202 million airbag-equipped passenger vehicles on the road in the United States, including 199 million with dual air bags. The agency says that frontal airbags saved the lives of 2,756 occupants age 13 and older in 2016. Airbags, combined with seatbelts, are the most effective safety protection available for passenger vehicles. Seatbelts alone reduce the risk of fatal injury to front-seat passenger car occupants by 45 percent. The fatality-reducing effectiveness for frontal airbags is 14 percent when no seatbelt is used and 11 percent when a seatbelt is used in conjunction with airbags.
• Seatbelts: Among passenger vehicle occupants age five and older, seatbelts saved an estimated 14,668 lives in 2016. In fatal crashes in 2015, about 80 percent of passenger vehicle occupants who were totally ejected from the vehicle were killed. NHTSA says that when used seat belts reduce the risk of fatal injury to front seat passenger car occupants by 45 percent and the risk of moderate-to-critical injury by 50 percent. For light truck occupants, the risk is reduced by 60 percent and 65 percent, respectively.
• Child safety seats: NHTSA says that in 2016 the lives of an estimated 328 children under the age of five were saved by restraints.
• Motorcycle helmets: NHTSA estimates that helmets saved the lives of 1,859 motorcyclists in 2016. If all motorcyclists had worn helmets, an additional 802 lives could have been saved.
• Helmets are estimated to be 37 percent effective in preventing fatal injuries to motorcycle riders and 41 percent for motorcycle passengers. In other words, for every 100 motorcycle riders killed in crashes while not wearing a helmet, 37 of them could have been saved had all 100 worn helmets.
• Electronic stability control: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) requires all vehicles manufactured after model year 2012 to have electronic stability control (ESC). All new passenger cars, light trucks, SUVs and vans must comply with the requirement. ESC was designed to help prevent rollovers and other types of crashes by controlling brakes and engine power.
• NHTSA says ESC saved about 1,949 passenger car occupant lives in 2015 including 857 passenger car occupants, and 1,091 lives among light truck and van occupants. The 2015 total for lives compares with 1,575 lives saved in 2014 and 1,380 lives saved in 2013. Over the five years from 2011 to 2015, NHTSA says the ESC has saved a total of more than 7,000 lives.

 

Motor vehicle crashes

2017: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that 37,133 people died in motor vehicle crashes in 2017, down 1.8 percent from 37,806 in 2016, the first decline since 2014. According to NHTSA, fatalities decreased in 2017 for almost all segments of the population, such as motorcyclists, pedestrians, and alcohol-impaired and speed-related fatalities but rose for SUV occupants and in crashes involving large trucks. The fatality rate, measured as deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, dropped to 1.16 in 2017, from 1.19 in 2016. NHTSA property damage figures shown below are based on accidents reported to the police and exclude fender-benders.

2016: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that 37,461 people died in motor vehicle crashes in 2016, up 5.6 percent from 35,485 in 2015. According to NHTSA, distracted and drowsy driving deaths fell in 2016, but deaths involving other reckless behavior, such as speeding, alcohol impairment, and not wearing seatbelts continued to increase. The fatality rate, measured as deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, rose to 1.18 in 2016, from 1.15 in 2015.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, vehicle occupants accounted for 67 percent of traffic deaths in 2016. Motorcycle riders accounted for 14 percent. Pedestrians accounted for another 16 percent; pedalcyclists, bus and other nonoccupants accounted for the remainder.

 

Motor Vehicle Deaths Per 100,000 Persons By Age, 2016

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Source: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

View Archived Graphs

 

Driver Behavior

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has developed a list of driver behaviors as factors in fatal crashes. Speeding is at the top of the list of related factors for drivers involved in fatal crashes. In 2017, 9,234 drivers who were involved in fatal crashes (or almost 18 percent) were speeding. In addition, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has found that rising state speed limits over the past 25 years have cost nearly 37,000 lives, including more than 1,900 in 2017 alone. By 2019, 41 states had maximum speed limits of 70 mph or higher. Six states had 80 mph limits, and drivers in Texas can legally drive 85 mph on some roads, according to the IIHS.

Ranking second was the influence of alcohol, drugs or medication, affecting 5,592 drivers, or about 11 percent of all drivers involved in fatal crashes. Failure to stay in the proper lane, and failure to yield the right of way were cited as third and fourth, with a total of about 7,500 drivers, or almost 15 percent of all drivers in fatal crashes. Distracted drivers were the fifth most likely to be involved in a fatal crash, with 3,210 drivers or 6 percent of all drivers in fatal crashes.

 

Motor vehicle crashes by time of year

Traffic fatalities spike during different periods.

• In 2015 October had the most fatal crashes, February had the least, according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
• In 2015, about 50 percent of fatal crashes occurred on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, according to NHTSA.
• The beginning of daylight savings is linked to an increase in auto accidents, according to an analysis by the University of British Columbia and a study by researchers at John Hopkins and Stanford University.
• Fifty more people on average die in traffic crashes during Thanksgiving week than during other weeks of the year, according to a University of Alabama study. Speeding, alcohol, time of day and weather, factors that affect crashes all year, are exaggerated during the holiday.
• Holidays are generally a time of increased travel. In 2015, Labor Day was the holiday period with the most motor vehicle deaths (394), followed by Thanksgiving Day (386), Memorial Day (367), Independence Day (366), New Year’s Day (355) and Christmas Day (273). See chart below.

 

Distracted driving

Activities that take drivers’ attention off the road, including talking or texting on cellphones, eating, talking with passengers, adjusting vehicle controls and other distractions, are a major safety threat. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) gauges distracted driving by collecting data on distraction-affected crashes, which focus on distractions that are most likely to affect crash involvement such as dialing a cellphone or texting and being distracted by another person or an outside event. In 2016, 3,450 people were killed in distraction-affected crashes. There were 3,157 distraction-affected fatal crashes, accounting for 9 percent of all fatal crashes in the nation.

Most states have addressed the issue using cellphones for talking and texting.  According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, as of April 2019, talking on a hand-held cellphone while driving is banned in 17 states and the District of Columbia (Minnesota’s law becomes effective on August 1, 2019). Text messaging is banned for all drivers in 47 states and the District of Columbia. Laws for novice drivers are even more restrictive: the use of all cellphones by novice drivers is restricted in 38 states and the District of Columbia, and novice drivers are banned from texting in two states (Arizona and Missouri).

Texting bans were not shown to reduce crash rates, according to a Highway Loss Data Institute 2010 study of collision claims patterns in California, Louisiana, Minnesota and Washington before and after texting bans went into effect. Collisions went up slightly in all the states, except Washington, where the change was statistically insignificant. However, a more recent study using data from hospital emergency departments in 16 states between 2007 and 2014 found that states with texting bans had an average 4 percent reduction in emergency department visits after motor vehicle crashes, or about 1,600 visits per year. The results were issued in March 2019 in the American Journal of Public Health by authors from the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Texas A&M University School of Public Health and used data from 16 states, all but one having laws banning texting while driving.

Teen girls are twice as likely as teen boys to use cell phones and other electronic devices while driving, according to a March, 2012 study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.

 

Pedestrian accidents

Pedestrians struck by cars are most often hit while in the crosswalk with the signal on their side, according to an analysis of pedestrian injuries treated at Bellevue Hospital Center in New York City. About 8 percent of the injured pedestrians were hurt while using an electronic device, according to the study. The study, which is highlighted in an April 2013 New York Times article, also looked at bicycle injuries. The study was published in the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery. In 2010, 4,280 pedestrians died.

According to NHTSA, 5,977 pedestrians were killed in motor vehicle crashes in the United States in 2017, a 1.7 percent decrease from 6,080 pedestrian fatalities in 2016. In 2017, one pedestrian was killed every 88 minutes in traffic crashes. Pedestrian deaths accounted for 16 percent of all traffic fatalities in 2017.

In 2017, 32 percent of fatally injured pedestrians had a blood-alcohol content (BAC) of 0.08 grams per deciliter or higher. A BAC of 0.08 grams per deciliter was the legal limit for alcohol impairment in all 50 states. In 2017, 17 percent of fatal pedestrian crashes involved a driver with a BAC of 0.08 or higher.