The announcement by federal authorities that traffic fatalities reported at the end of 2009 reached the lowest level since 1954 has little impact for auto insurers, an expert in the field said.
Robert Hartwig, president of the Insurance Information Institute, said that auto insurers' losses result from “millions of other accidents that don't involve a fatality” or from non-accident events like theft.
Relatively few claims are actually associated with highway fatalities, and of greater impact on insurer losses are the number of crash injuries, he said.
According to early projections by the U.S. Dept. of Transportation, the fatality rate, which takes into account the number of miles traveled, reached the lowest level ever recorded.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in a statement called the figures “exciting news, but there are still far too many people dying in traffic accidents. Drivers need to keep their hands on the steering wheel and their focus on the road in order to stay safe.”
The projected fatality data for 2009 places the highway death count at 33,963, a drop of 8.9 percent compared with the 37,261 deaths reported in 2008.
The fatality rate for 2009 declined to the lowest on record, 1.16 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT), down from 1.25 fatalities per 100 million VMT in 2008.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration attributed the fatality decline to factors including high visibility campaigns like “Click It or Ticket,” and campaigns against drunk driving and distracted driving, and also to safer roads, safer vehicles and to motorists driving less.
For the full report, go to http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811291.PDF.
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