NHTSA Takes Action After Highway Death Increase

Motorists in Connecticut may be pleased to learn that in February 2016, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration stated its intention to fight factors that contributed to highway fatalities with increased vigor. According to reports, the agency plans to implement regional summits with the hopes of determining what kinds of human conduct might cause unsafe road conditions.

The declaration came on the heels of NHTSA statistics that showed that U.S. traffic deaths rose by more than 9 percent in the first nine months of 2015 over the comparable period in the preceding year. This increase was notable because it went against a multi-year trend of consistent decrease in which traffic deaths dropped by no less than 22 percent from 2000 to 2014.

The agency revealed that although more than 26,000 people died nationwide in the first nine months of 2015, different geographic areas suffered from varied fatality-rate fluctuations. For instance, the lowest increases of around 2 percent were observed in South Central and mid-Atlantic states, while fatalities in the Southeast jumped 16 percent, and deaths in the Northwest increased by 20 percent.

NHTSA research has shown that 94 percent of crashes are related to human factors in some manner. Car accident victims often face severe and lasting consequences. They can become permanently disabled, lose the ability to work and be buried under large medical expenses. While they may feel pressured to accept insurance deals and settlements as soon as possible, they may want to meet with a personal injury attorney to see if the filing of a lawsuit against the negligent driver who caused the accident would be advisable.