Amazing reduction in annual deaths....from cars

Yesterday I wrote about the Facebook post that says,

"Give up your car because others drive drunk?  No.
Then why give up your gun because others commit crimes with them?"


The lack of equivalence in these two statements annoyed me, but the post did get me thinking about the similarities between motor vehicle deaths and deaths due to guns.


As my friend B. wrote on Facebook:  "...drunk drivers still kill more people every year than crazed mass shooters. It is illegal to drive drunk, but that doesn't stop people from doing it."  

And it's not just drunk driving that causes fatalities.  Many people are killed on the roads each year because of drivers who are too sleepy, inattentive, or aggressive; because of those who fail to maintain their vehicle properly and those who fail to adjust their driving to poor road or weather conditions; those who fail to yield to cyclists, pedestrians or other drivers; even those who, just that once, neglect to check their blind spot.  

Like a gun, a car can cause injury or death in a split second.  

Car accidents and fatalities have been around as long as cars have, and we certainly haven't given up our cars as a result. 

But guess what?  We have SIGNIFICANTLY reduced the number of fatalities, both in absolute terms and relative to the population and number of miles driven*.  

Any idea which year had the highest number of motor vehicle deaths?  1997?  1988, maybe?  

Actually, it was way back in 1972.  That year 54,589 people were killed via motor vehicles.  That translated to 26.0 deaths per 100,000 people in the U.S., or 4.3 deaths per 100 million miles driven. 

But it has been all downhill since then, and in this case, that is a very good thing.  

In 2011 there were 32,367 motor vehicle deaths.  While that is still a huge loss, it is the lowest number of deaths in SIXTY-TWO years, going back to 1949.  The reduction in terms of population and miles driven is even more astonishing:  10.4 deaths per 100K people, or 1.1 deaths per 100 million miles driven. 

Clearly, much of this reduction can be attributed to improved safety features in vehicles, starting with seat belts in the 1960s and 70s, followed by airbags in the late 80s and into the 1990s, with anti-lock brakes and I don't know what all in between.

But there must have been other factors at work as well.  For example, in just the 10 years from 2001 to 2011, the number of motor vehicle fatalities per 100K people in the U.S. dropped by 27%, while the number per 100 million miles driven went down 30%.  And that was in spite of the exponential increase in the number of cell phones and all the potential driver distraction they introduce.  Someone else can delve into the specific factors at work here, but I assume they include things such as increased attention to the problem of drunk driving (in terms of both more roadblocks on Saturday nights and more peer pressure against excessive drinking), increased seat belt use, and maybe even the huge demographic block of baby boomers getting old and mellow.

I assume you can see where I'm going here.  While I continue to believe that fewer guns in society will provide the greatest reduction in pain and suffering, there are clearly many steps that can be taken to reduce the number of deaths that result from the guns that we have now.

Tomorrow I will float some specific ideas along these lines.  Please comment below to share your ideas as well. 


*All stats on motor vehicle deaths from Wikipedia; see website for specific references:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_in_U.S._by_year