Highway Deaths Decline 3% In 2010 for Fifth Year of Record Lows, U.S. Says

The number of people killed on U.S. highways fell last year for the fifth consecutive year, the longest streak of declines in the country’s history.

Crash fatalities dropped 3 percent to an estimated 32,788 in 2010 from 2009, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said today in a statement. The fatality rate, or the number of people killed per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, also decreased, falling to 1.09 from 1.13 in 2009.

National distracted-driving and seat-belt use campaigns, as well as safer vehicles, helped reduce the number of deaths on U.S. roads, said the Transportation Department, which includes the highway-safety agency. The fatality rate has fallen by about half since 1989.

“Last year’s drop in traffic fatalities is welcome news and it proves that we can make a difference,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in the statement. “Still, too many of our friends and neighbors are killed in preventable roadway tragedies every day.”

Deaths declined even as U.S. drivers drove 21 billion more miles last year. The U.S. government has tracked deaths on U.S. roads since 1899, a year in which 26 people died in motor vehicle crashes.

Fatalities increases in last year’s third and fourth quarters from the same periods a year earlier, NHTSA said in a report today. The increases followed 17 straight quarters of decreases. Miles driven rose more in the second half of the year than in the first, the agency said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Angela Greiling Keane in Washington at agreilingkea@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bernard Kohn at bkohn2@bloomberg.net

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