Traffic Deaths

WASHINGTON -- Traffic deaths nationally were down last year to their lowest level since record-keeping began in 1949.  But not in North Dakota, where they were up 41%, the biggest increase of any state. Fourteen states, including California, recorded an increase in motor vehicle fatalities, even though the 32,367 traffic deaths last year were down 1.9% from the previous year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The traffic safety agency this year projected a record low in 2011 traffic deaths as motorists drove less, perhaps because of high gas prices and a still-difficult economy.

More teen drivers are dying in traffic accidents. A state-by-state look at teen driver fatalities by the Governors Highway Safety Assn. found that 16- and 17-year-old driver deaths increased from 202 to 240 during the first half of 2012, a 19% jump from the same period in the previous year. It marks a reversal in declining teen driver death rates attributed to the introduction of graduated license systems in many states.  Such systems place restrictions - such as the number of passengers allowed in a vehicle - on teen driver licenses that are gradually lifted as the teens age and gain more driving experience.  The governors' association said the increase mirrored projections by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in which all traffic deaths increased by 8% during the same period.  That's attributed to increased driving that is a result of an improving U.S. economy.

Traffic fatalities during the first six months of the year totaled 122, 4% fewer than the comparable period last year. More people (26) were killed on the county's streets, roads and highways during January than any of the other months. The most deaths during any single month in one city were seven in Anaheim during June. Anaheim's 16 deaths during the six-month period were also the highest of any city, although this is a 45% decrease from the 29 recorded last year. Jan.-June Jan.

For the first time since 2005, the estimated number of people killed in the U.S. by car crashes went up, according to the National Safety Council. Vehicle crashes killed an estimated 36,200 people in 2012, according to a council report released Tuesday. That's a 5% increase from 2011, making it the first time the number of deaths has risen since 2004 to 2005. Much of the increase can be attributed to more people on the roads, according to the report. "Total miles driven across the nation have been on the rise since December of 2011," the report said.

Karla Martinez carried the framed photographs to the growing streetside memorial in Anaheim. There they were: hugging, showing off for the camera, old friends having good times, all smiles. But the good times had been swept away: 21-year-old Sheyla Mendoza, her mother Carmen Mendoza, 56, and cousin Stephanie Henriquez, 21, were dead. The three family members were fatally injured late Saturday as they walked down Western Avenue in the heart of Anaheim after a baby shower. They were struck by a drunk driver, police say. On Monday, a memorial of candles, homemade posters and photos, placed on the sidewalk near the site where the three were hit, swelled in size.

WASHINGTON -- U.S. traffic deaths rose a projected 9% in the first half of this year, compared with the same period a year ago, for the largest increase since 1975, as an improved economy led motorists to drive more. The increase comes after road fatalities dropped last year to their lowest level in more than six decades. An estimated 16,290 people died in crashes between January and June, up from 14,950 for the first half of 2011, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

WASHINGTON -- U.S. traffic deaths dropped last year to their lowest level since record-keeping began in 1949, according to an estimate from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The region encompassing California, Arizona and Hawaii was the only one with an increase in highway fatalities, up about 3.3% from the previous year. Last year's national decline in traffic fatalities -- to 32,310 -- came as motorists drove about 36 billion, or about 1.2%, fewer miles, perhaps because of high gas prices and a still-difficult economy that might have discouraged pleasure road trips.

Traffic deaths in 2010 fell to their lowest levels in more than 60 years, according to new data from the Department of Transportation. Safety technology in vehicles has made huge leaps in recent years and has lowered death and injury rates in collisions, analysts say. Even the base models of 2012 vehicles are now required to have anti-lock brakes, electronic stability control, tire pressure sensor monitors and multiple air bags. More expensive vehicles have extra features such as backup cameras and blind-spot warning lights and alerts.

Traffic deaths on the state's roads during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend increased over the toll from last year's holiday, with more than half blamed on drivers and passengers not wearing seat belts, California Highway Patrol officials said Tuesday. Forty-nine people died in crashes between Wednesday evening and Sunday night. Last year, the number was 39. The last time there were more deaths over the Thanksgiving weekend was 1997, when 54 people died in traffic.

Traffic deaths in the United States declined last year, reaching the lowest level in more than a decade, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported. Some 41,059 people were killed in highway crashes, down by more than 1,600 from 2006. The fatality rate of 1.37 deaths for every 100 million miles traveled in 2007 was the lowest on record, the agency said. California had the largest decline: 266 fewer fatalities.

Karla Martinez carried the framed photographs to the growing streetside memorial in Anaheim. There they were: hugging, showing off for the camera, old friends having good times, all smiles. But the good times had been swept away: 21-year-old Sheyla Mendoza, her mother Carmen Mendoza, 56, and cousin Stephanie Henriquez, 21, were dead. The three family members were fatally injured late Saturday as they walked down Western Avenue in the heart of Anaheim after a baby shower. They were struck by a drunk driver, police say. On Monday, a memorial of candles, homemade posters and photos, placed on the sidewalk near the site where the three were hit, swelled in size.

WASHINGTON -- Traffic deaths nationally were down last year to their lowest level since record-keeping began in 1949.  But not in North Dakota, where they were up 41%, the biggest increase of any state. Fourteen states, including California, recorded an increase in motor vehicle fatalities, even though the 32,367 traffic deaths last year were down 1.9% from the previous year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The traffic safety agency this year projected a record low in 2011 traffic deaths as motorists drove less, perhaps because of high gas prices and a still-difficult economy.

Red state voters are more likely to die in a traffic accident than blue state voters. That's the finding of FairWarning.org, an online, nonprofit publication that does public interest journalism. “The 10 states with the highest fatality rates all were red, while all but one of the 10 lowest fatality states were blue. What's more, the place with the nation's lowest fatality rate, while not a state, was the very blue District of Columbia,” FairWarning said in an article published Tuesday.

WASHINGTON -- U.S. traffic deaths rose a projected 9% in the first half of this year, compared with the same period a year ago, for the largest increase since 1975, as an improved economy led motorists to drive more. The increase comes after road fatalities dropped last year to their lowest level in more than six decades. An estimated 16,290 people died in crashes between January and June, up from 14,950 for the first half of 2011, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

  America, we have got a problem. It is called "distracted walking" and while it occasionally makes for hilarious online video bloopers, it is also posing a real danger to the people of our great nation. The number of people who have landed in U.S. emergency rooms thanks to injuries incurred while they were walking and texting, tweeting, playing video games, talking on the phone, or listening to music on headphones, has more than quadrupled in the past seven years, the Associated Press reports . In 2011 alone, 1,152 people were treated for distracted walking, according to data collected by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and that number is likely a gross underestimate since many doctors or nurses may not have asked whether the patient was using a mobile device at the time of the accident.

Parents who transport a youngster without a car seat and lose the child in a fatal traffic accident may have their surviving children removed by social welfare authorities, the California Supreme Court decided unanimously Thursday. The state high court ruled in favor of Los Angeles County social workers who placed two young boys in foster care after their 18-month-old sister, held on the lap of an aunt, was killed when a driver ran a stop sign and plowed into the car their father was driving.

Traffic accidents killed 40,676 Americans last year, up from 40,115 in 1993 and the second consecutive year of increase, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Friday. Highway fatalities had been falling for several years. While deaths were up, the number of miles driven also increased, keeping the highway death rate constant at 1.7 per million miles driven. Dr.

WASHINGTON -- Everything is bigger in Texas, they say.  Soon, it could be faster, too. The Lone Star State could raise the speed limit on one stretch of highway to 85 miles per hour, the highest in the nation. But don't press the pedal to the metal yet. The possibility of zooming down a 41-mile stretch of new toll road between Austin and San Antonio at 85 mph is revving up a debate about highway speeds that dates back at least to the 1970s when Congress imposed a national 55 mph speed limit (repealed in 1995)

WASHINGTON -- U.S. traffic deaths dropped last year to their lowest level since record-keeping began in 1949, according to an estimate from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The region encompassing California, Arizona and Hawaii was the only one with an increase in highway fatalities, up about 3.3% from the previous year. Last year's national decline in traffic fatalities -- to 32,310 -- came as motorists drove about 36 billion, or about 1.2%, fewer miles, perhaps because of high gas prices and a still-difficult economy that might have discouraged pleasure road trips.