Traffic deaths are up despite advancements in vehicle safety systems

A new mainstream media report is drawing attention to an increase in traffic fatalities despite an increase in advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) meant to make vehicles safer.

The NBC affiliate article was the latest to draw a parallel between increased safety features and last year’s projected roadway deaths being up nearly 10% over 2020’s figures.

The 42,915 people killed in traffic crashes last year was also 26% higher than 2010’s 32,885 deaths, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) data.

NBC noted that cyclists and pedestrians have been disproportionately affected by the uptick, with deaths among them rising 60% within the span of a decade.

“We don’t know exactly what’s going on with the increase in pedestrian fatalities. It certainly seems like the increase in bigger vehicles is contributing to it,” said Jessica Cicchino, vice president of research at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). “Many studies have shown that larger vehicles like SUVs and pickups are more likely to kill or seriously injure pedestrians and cyclists when they’re involved in a crash.”

IIHS has made a number of efforts to reduce pedestrian deaths, including:

• • Developing nighttime pedestrian crash prevention ratings, which it said could help automatic emergency braking (AEB) systems detect pedestrians in the dark;
  • Adding pedestrian autobraking to its Top Safety Pick and Top Safety Pick+ criteria; and
  • Together with the Highway Loss Data Institute petitioned federal regulators to require passenger vehicles to be equipped with pedestrian AEB systems that work well in the dark.

There are a number of other ADAS features such as lane departure warnings and forward pedestrian impact avoidance meant to prevent collisions but those systems can’t reverse the trend on their own, said Joe Young, IIHS spokesman.

Although traffic fatalities are higher than they were 10 years ago, they’re beginning to drop from 2021’s 42,939 deaths, which represented a 16-year high.

NHTSA shared new data in June that shows traffic fatalities dropped 3.3% during Q1 2023, representing the fourth consecutive quarterly decline.

The federal agency said its initial projections show that 9,330 people were killed on U.S. roadways during the first three months of 2023, fewer than the 9,645 people who died during the same period last year.

The projected decrease in deaths was despite more drivers hitting the road, NHTSA added.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said at the time that more work must be done to reduce traffic fatalities.

“After spiking during the pandemic, traffic deaths have been on a slow but consistent decline for the past year,” he said. “This is an encouraging sign as we work to reverse the rise in roadway deaths, but there is much more work ahead to reinforce this downward trend and make it permanent.”

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