For six years in a row, the overall number of motor vehicle fatalities in the United States declined, from 43,510 in 2005 to 32,367 in 2011, a drop of 26 percent. During this time period, the number of passenger car (PC) occupant fatalities declined every year, from 18,512 in 2005 to 11,981 in 2011, a drop of 35 percent, and the number of light truck/van (LTV) occupant fatalities declined every year, from 13,037 in 2005 to 9,272 in 2011, a drop of 29 percent. This report examines data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System. Passenger vehicles (PVs) consist of PCs and LTVs. The decline in PV occupant fatalities can be better understood by examining six fatal crash types. These six types of PV occupant fatal crashes consist of two groups of single-vehicle (SV) crashes (SV PC, SV LTV), three groups of two-vehicle crashes (PC-PC, LTV-LTV, and PC-LTV), and 3+ PV crashes. These crash types each experienced large drops in fatalities from 2005 to 2011, ranging from 25 percent and 32 percent for SV LTV and SV PC fatalities respectively, to between 35 and 39 percent for each of the three different two-vehicle crash types, and up to 43 percent for fatalities in 3+ vehicle fatal crashes. For each of the six crash groups, many factors are examined, including occupant age, seat position, vehicle body type, restraint use, ejection, crash location, crash time, alcohol-impaired driving, rollover, road type, manner of collision, and more. The percentage decline in PV occupant fatalities since 2005 was higher for age groups <16 (46%), 16 to 20 (43%) and 35 to 34 (41%), and lower for groups 45 to 64 (27%) and 65+ (22%). Driver fatalities declined by 30 percent compared to the 39 percent decline in passenger fatalities. Van occupant fatalities dropped by 46 percent, compared to the decline in fatalities to occupants of passenger cars (36%), pickups (30%) and SUVs (21%). The 37 years of FARS data since 1975 shows that the largest fatality declines coincided with the three biggest recessions in the United States economy (1980-1982, 1990-1991, 2007-2009). From 1975 to 2011, of the 10 largest annual percentage declines in PC occupant fatality rates per VMT, 8 of them occurred either during or immediately following a recession. Similarly, of the 8 largest annual percentage declines in LTV occupant fatality rates per VMT, 6 of them occurred either during or immediately following a recession. Many important safety improvements to roadways (e.g., improved lighting, rumble strips), vehicles (e.g., air bags, electronic stability control) and occupant behaviour (e.g., restraint use, reduced alcohol-impaired driving, moving children to the back seat) contributed to the occupant fatality reduction. This report does not focus on estimating the relative magnitude of these safety improvements. (Author/publisher)
Abstract