The headline in USA Today reads, “Traffic deaths down, but not low enough.” But what else can be done?

The approach is called Toward Zero Deaths, based on a philosophy that even one road death is morally and ethically unacceptable. The goal: to alter behaviors that cause fatalities, such as speeding, drunken or distracted driving, and lack of seat belts. Speeding is a factor in more than 31% of road deaths, drunken driving in 32%, and distracted driving in about 16%. And 55% of those killed in passenger vehicles are not wearing seat belts, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Last year, 33,963 people died in traffic crashes in the USA, an 8.9% decline from 2008 and the lowest total since 1954, according to the Department of Transportation. The fatality rate of 1.16 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled was the lowest since the government started tracking it in 1966.

The Stockholm Environment Institute measured a 14% reduction in Western European deaths as a result of similar marketing efforts. Six states have already begun statewide versions of the program.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 13th, 2010 at 7:45 PM and is filed under Accidents, Distracted Driving, Safety. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.