NHTSA: U.S. Pedestrian, Bicyclist Fatalities Increased in 2018

UNITED STATES – According to a news story reported online at devdiscourse.com, a new report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) indicates that pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities increased in 2018 in the United States. Traffic fatalities overall decreased slightly, while these two types of fatal accidents rose.

According to NHTSA, a total of 36,750 fatal traffic accidents occurred in the country during 2018. This was down 1 percent from the previous year (2017), a decrease that NHTSA did not attribute to any one thing. This was the lowest rate of overall traffic deaths since 2014. However, pedestrian fatalities and bicyclist fatalities rose during the year.

NHTSA reports that preliminary information shows pedestrian deaths were up about 4 percent, while bicyclist deaths were up about 10 percent. In 2017, pedestrian fatalities represented 16 percent of all traffic deaths in the United States. This was up from 12 percent in 2009.

NHTSA has been looking into whether distracted driving has played a role in this increase, but the agency says it is difficult to measure the true effects of distraction. This is because people are usually unwilling to admit that they were distracted prior to a crash. NHTSA states that a total of 599 pedestrians and cyclists were killed in 2017 in what were known to be distraction-related crashes. 

The report from NHTSA comes after another report was released by the Governors Highway Safety Association earlier this year. GHSA predicted that, based on early data, pedestrian fatalities were expected to hit a 30-year high in 2018. 

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Source:https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/international/563973-update-1-us-pedestrian-bicyclist-deaths-rise-in-2018--report