More Safety Measures, Fewer Car Accidents

The number of injuries and death associated with the motor industry decreased over the last six decades across the United States, thus proving the success of safety measures and policies implemented over time.

Over the last two decades, the number of deaths among young people decreased by nearly 40%, going from 13,949 causalities in 2000 – or 13.62 per 100,000 persons – to 8,234 recorded in 2020 – or 8.31 per 100,000 persons.

Following the principles of harm reduction, continuous efforts have been made to prevent deaths from motor vehicle crashes. A federal agency whose mission is to save lives and prevent injuries, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), created comprehensive data systems, including a public database. Together, NHTSA and the nonprofit Institute Insurance for Highway Safety provided safety ratings to vehicles based on crash-test results and fatality data. This created such a shift in the industry that motor companies started to make their vehicles safer by adding automatic emergency braking, electronic stability controls, lane-departure warnings, blind-spot detection, side airbags, and rear-facing cameras. This goes to show that given the same attention and preventive tools, other deathly spheres, including deaths by firearms, could decrease in a significant way.