Apr 22, 2018 3 min read

We’re not in 1972 anymore.

And we can be glad for that when it comes to automobile fatalities.

It was in the year of the Watergate break-in, the Immaculate Reception, the first episode of “The Price is Right” and the final Apollo moon mission that the United States sustained the greatest number of deaths on its roads. All told, 54,589 people died as a result of car crashes. Thanks to more aggressive enforcement of drunken driving laws, better car and road design, air bags, and lower speed limits, that number has tapered off in the decades since, reaching a low of 32,423 in 2008.

In Pennsylvania, there’s been more good news on that front. PennDOT announced last week that 1,137 people died in vehicle crashes in the commonwealth in 2017. That’s the lowest number since records have been kept, and that goes back 90 years.

PennDOT didn’t cite a specific reason why the number of fatalities declined, but emphasized that it is making investments in safety and education, and that 94 percent of crashes are caused by human behavior. It also noted that fatalities among drivers older than age 75 increased last year, which underscores the need for elderly drivers to be tested more frequently to make sure they are fit to drive.

Deaths caused by a driver running a red light also increased from 28 to 35. That could well be the result of distracted driving, which many experts believe has led to a slight uptick in deadly crashes across the country over the last couple of years. The National Safety Council reported in February there were about 40,000 vehicle deaths in the United States last year, roughly the same as the year before, but considerably more than a decade ago. The culprits, according to the council, include the stubborn contingent of drivers and passengers who do not buckle up, despite years of public service campaigns urging them to do so, along with increased speed limits and drivers distracted by their phones.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has called the reduction in auto fatalities “one of the great public health achievements of the 20th century,” but we still lag behind other industrialized, affluent nations when it comes to vehicle deaths. We have twice as many per 100,000 people as they do in New Zealand, which comes in second. Most of the other nations the CDC looks at have better developed public transportation systems than we do, and, sure, we have long been enchanted by the freedom and mobility we find with our own vehicles.

Still, as Deborah A.P. Hersman, the CEO of the National Safety Council, said, the number of highway deaths is “a stark reminder that our complacency is killing us. The only acceptable number is zero; we need to mobilize a full-court press to include roadway safety.”

PennDOT pointing out that almost all fatal accidents result from how we conduct ourselves behind the wheel is important to remember. Reducing the number of deadly auto accidents is a problem where, for the most part, the solution is in our own hands.