Traffic fatalities were up 9% in the first six months of this year compared with the same period last year, continuing a surge in deaths that began two years ago as the economy improved and travel picked up, according to preliminary estimates released Tuesday by the National Safety Council (NSC).
An estimated 19,100 people were killed on U.S. roads from January through June, according to the NSC, a congressionally chartered nonprofit that gets its data from state authorities. That number is 18% more than two years ago at the six-month mark. About 2.2 million people also were seriously injured in the first half of this year.
At that rate, annual deaths could exceed 40,000 fatalities this year for the first time in nine years, the council said. More than 35,000 people were killed on U.S. roads last year, making it the deadliest driving year since 2008, when more than 37,000 were killed.
It has been assumed that technological advances like more automated safety features in cars—and ultimately self-driving cars—would go a long way toward solving the problem of traffic fatalities since driver errors are responsible for approximately 94% of all deaths.
States with the biggest increases since the upward trend began in late 2014 include Vermont, up 82 percent; Oregon, 70 percent; New Hampshire, 61 percent; Idaho, 46 percent; Florida, 43 percent; Iowa, 37 percent; Georgia, 34 percent; Indiana, 33 percent; California, 31 percent and Wisconsin, 29 percent.
The council's tallies of traffic fatalities differ slightly from those of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration because the council includes motor vehicle deaths that take place in parking lots, driveways and other nonpublic roadways.
