U.S. traffic fatalities jumped way up last year. Drive safe out there!
 

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1487360911

From: Annual Traffic Deaths Rose To A Terrifying 40,200 People Last Year

And apparently, even when controlling for vehicle miles driven, the trend is going in the wrong direction (from a comment posted under that article):

Drive safe out there!!

To prevent complacency, I make YouTube dashcam crash video compilations a regular part of my time-wasting/entertainment diet. :D (Good discussion here: http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...war-34103.html)

Given how people drive around here it's not all that surprising.

people are morons and the car manufacturers are making cars for morons who cant see the car in front of them or next to them.

A large percentage of the deaths are from the increase in highway deaths.

In our state the increase is directly related to an increase in deaths where highway speed limits have been increased.

As states increase speed limits to close the road funding gaps expect more highway deaths.

Trump is in the whitehouse republicans in all 3 branches of government, so expect roadway speeds to increase
(because obviously increasing funding isn't a tax increase)
and "personal responsibility " to rule the day.

Given the rise in popularity of texting/instagram, and other phone related distractions, this is to be expected. Although it is scary to see it actually coming true.

I love watching dashcam crash and bad driving videos. They really open up your eyes to how crashes happen, and how F***ing easy they are to prevent. One that seems really common is when traffic is piled up and stopped in the left lane of an intersection while the right lane is clear, idiot #1 comes FLYING BY in the right lane, meanwhile idiot #2 blindly turns in front of idiot #1 and gets t-boned. They don't even hesitate to look!

I think it should be mandatory for driving schools to give take home assignments in the form of car crash videos, have the students analyze them and see how to predict and prevent those situations. They have the potential to make so many people better drivers.

Same here.

PRO-TIP! I like playing the game of "predict the crash!" with my new-to-driving nephews. But make sure to watch foreign language ones... or if you're watching domestic ones, turn the volume down! Lots and lotsa swears. :)

Well, my kids just got a new category of videos to watch.

It would be more useful if the statistics were accompanied by a breakdown of causes.

I would tend to blame distracted driving more than increased speed limits, however, the State Legislature here mandated increasing speed limits on interstate highways inside congested urban areas to 70 mph a few years ago, against the advice of experts. It is very difficult to merge into heavy traffic when it is going by at 70 or faster and the best you can make at the end of a steep onramp is 55 or 60.

Rural speeds are a different matter. Most rural freeways in the state are posted at 80 mph, which is fine with me -- and the experts. When I was a kid, it took 11 hours to drive between Salt Lake City and St. George. Now, you can drive it easily in less than half the time and much more safely (thank-you Pres. Eisenhower). I do miss stopping in Fillmore for dinner.

It could also be that more people are driving more frequently and further because of the generally lower gas prices.

Here in finland, we are pretty egoistic in our cars, and have a aggressive driving as a collective mindset.

Suprisingly, fatal accidents are relatively low here due to inspections on cars, and low speed limits. We only have a couple highways with a 120Km/h speed limit, it's mostly 100.across the country.

On winters the max speed on highways is 80km/h

We have a lot of mooses, but we dont have animal-caused accidents a lot, either.

(Never dodge for animals smaller than a young deer)


Our garbage man swerved for a fox and drove the truck in a ditch. Oh boy he was pissed

Wisconsin lists the increase as highway deaths and it directly correlates to the increase in speed limits.

Deaths per mile traveled have gone up so throw that out as well.

Single vehicle accidents and rear ended accidents have increase as well (meaning distracted driving is just as deadly on the highway as it is in the city.)

And to think a $3 device could eliminate most distracted driving

I rarely swerve, even for larger animals. Brakes are almost always the best bet, and never at the same time as swerving.

The only time I swerve is when I notice the obstacle with less than 2 seconds to react. Last time this happened it was snowing very hard at night, and I was driving as quickly as I could since I was in the middle of nowhere and didn't have chains. 3 deer appeared across the road, and somehow I threaded the car-width gap between 2 of them.

Though you need to remember the old "correlation is not causation" thing. Texting & cell phone use have also gone up, and that's IMHO a lot more likely to cause crashes than simple speed. Let alone increased speed limits, 'cause (at least hereabouts) most people don't pay that much attention to them :-)

The increase in deaths was on highways with the increased limits, ditto the causation correlation though. Very possible roads with higher limits are more travelled.

Our state has increased road funding 20% year over year just by increasing limits, miles traveled have only gone up marginally,
so increasing speed limits is very effective at raising gas use and taxes.

I think texting is more dangerous at speed, I've been staying off primary highways as much as possible lately.

Until the last year I've never had to watch the rear view mirror constantly but zombie drivers are multiplying.
The small increase in speed limits seems to correlate to much higher actual speeds.

Maybe just enough added speed to overwhelm Texty McSwervalot's reflexes, where he was doing just fine at the somewhat lower speeds.

That's the real danger with speed- it just amplifies the problems we already have. If you're driving safely it doesn't really matter how quickly you're doing it. If you're not driving safely, going faster will just give you (and those around you) less slop time to recover from your mistakes.

Texty McSwervalot = :D

Is that username taken?

The FASTER you're going...the HARDER the sudden stopping.

Have there been any studies showing the causation?

Most of the studies I've read regarding highway speed limits show that increasing a speed limit that was set lower than the prevailing speeds most drivers drive at will increase compliance but not increase the average speed of drivers. Variation in speed is reduced, and the higher the deviation from the average speed, the higher the risk of a collision. As such, studies typically show no change in fatal collisions or a reduction.
For example: Speed Doesn’t Kill - The Repeal of the 55-MPH Speed Limit

I would be more than a little surprised if the higher fatality rates are linked to higher PSLs on highways.

Highway death increase is large and occurred in a very short time of 1 year.

Since miles traveled went up minimally where does the Wisconsin 32-38% increase in deaths come from? (Overall/highway)

Inside sources say 2 lane highways had death increases within the margin of error leaving the increase solely to interstate.

Authorities state average highway speeds have increased more than the increase in the limit and that lots of new and very old drivers are now on the road?
In the span of 1 year that falls flat with me.
Authorities admit impaired or distracted drive account for most deaths but again, did that change by 38% in one year?

My guess is that higher speeds cause more dangerous accidents, which is not for discussion everyone agrees on that, but all forms of accidents and injuries have risen which means more accidents.

If speed has nothing to do with it and people where texting last year and are driving similar annual distances and obviously in a state with a reducing population we haven't had everyone age 20 years overnight or similarly import millions of 16 year olds either. (Birth rates have been low over 20 years here)

What is left?