It often feels like there’s a focus on safety on American roads, and you would assume that those roads are getting safer. New vehicles have crumple zones, airbags, blindspot monitoring systems, backup cameras and plenty of other examples of auto safety technology. This should reduce the number of accidents that happen – and the number of fatalities.
However, studies have found that the opposite is occurring. The fatal accident rate has been going up in recent years. For instance, there was a 16% increase between 2018 and 2022. The total fatalities for the year jumped from 36,835 all the way up to 42,795.
Why are these accidents happening?
Speed is often cited as a reason for the rise in fatalities. This is especially true when traffic levels decrease. Rather than reducing the number of fatal accidents, lower traffic levels tend to increase fatalities because they lead to higher overall speeds. So there may be fewer total accidents, but the fatality rate goes up because more of those accidents are deadly.
It’s also impossible to ignore the increase in distracted driving. Cellphones in particular are a major reason for distraction. But in-car infotainment systems can also be distracting as drivers try to do things like changing the radio station, streaming music, using a GPS or adjusting the temperature controls.
Since the accident rates are going up, you do face risks from other drivers every time you’re on the road. If you suffer injuries, or if a loved one passes away in an accident that someone else caused, you need to know how to seek compensation.
