Over the Labor Day weekend, while everyone else was grilling, watching a parade, or relaxing in the knowledge that fall is on its way, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released its data on traffic fatalities for the year 2015. The final death toll: 35,092.
What This Data Tells Us About Car Crashes
Saying that 35,092 people died in traffic related accidents during 2015 does not communicate much, however, without more information to put it into context. To put this number into perspective and provide some sort of context to this figure: The final death toll for traffic related accidents in 2015 was a 7.2 percent increase over the number of traffic related fatalities for 2014, and is the largest year to year increase in traffic deaths since 1966. Additionally, the sudden jump breaks a recent trend that had seen these types of fatalities decrease on a year to year basis.
Another number that helps to put this annual death toll in context: 35,092 people dying every year from traffic related accidents means that, every day, nearly 100 people are killed. That is more than four per hour, and one every fifteen minutes.
2016 Is Already Looking Even Worse
NHTSA is not the only source for these statistics. The National Safety Council also publishes figures on death tolls from traffic accidents and other similar events. According to the National Safety Council’s numbers for the months of January through June in 2016, this year will almost definitely outpace the traffic related fatalities numbers for 2015. According to the National Safety Council, in 2015, 17,530 people had died in traffic related accidents before the start of July. In 2016, that number was already at 19,100, a nine percent increase from the year 2015.
This trend is especially worrying in light of the increase that 2015 had brought about. While the fatalities during the first six months of 2016 were nine percent higher than 2015, they were 18 percent higher than 2014’s numbers for the first six months. The rise is expected to bring the number of traffic fatalities to over 40,000 in 2016, the first time it has reached such heights in over nine years.
Car Crashes are Costly
Anyone who has been in a car crash knows how devastating they can be. Even if no one is hurt, the property damage that occurs can quickly run into the thousands of dollars. If someone gets hurt, though, the dollar amount does not even begin to tell the tale of pain and suffering that a victim is forced to go through.
Cobb County Personal Injury Attorney Joel Williams
If you have been injured or suffered property damage in a car wreck, you need an attorney on your side who will make sure you get the compensation that you deserve. Whether this comes from your insurance company or the person who hit you, personal injury attorney Joel Williams will make sure that it happens, and will represent you both in and out of court to ensure that you get what you need.
