CTI Academy Analysis of Fatal Crash Trends and Identification of Countermeasures

Fatal highway crashes in the United States continues to result in alarming numbers of fatalities each year. As compiled and reported by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in their "Traffic Safety Facts 2003 Overview," motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for persons from 2 through 22 years of age (based on 2000 data). In addition, it was reported that 42,643 people were killed and 2,889,000 injured in 2003. However, the national crash rate in terms offatalities per 100 million vehicle miles (F/lOOMVM) of travel has decreased in recent years to a historic low of 1.48. This decreasing trend nationally has been in place since the mid 1980's. Even with this overall decreasing trend, the 2002 statistics showed there were 12 states with fatal crash rates that exceeded the national crash rate by 25 percent or more. The states with highest crash rates included Arizona, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, South Carolina, South Dakota, West Virginia, and Wyoming. In Kentucky, the fatality crash rate has increased from 1.71 F/1OOMVMin 1999 to 1.98 in 2003. In addition, the number of fatalities in Kentucky has reached the highest level in many years (958 fatalities in 1977) with 928 deaths in 2003.