Summit on Rising Auto Accident Fatalities Held by NHTSA

Federal regulators plan to hold a two day summit this week, to help develop strategies and countermeasures that will prevent distracted driving and change driving behaviors that are believed to be responsible for the recent rise in auto accident fatalities nationwide. 

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) will hold the last of a series of driving behavior summits in Washington D.C. today and tomorrow. The two day summit will address core strategies to counter poor driving behaviors, new safety technologies and to define the long term vision for traffic safety.

Five seminars have been hosted by the NHTSA across the country over the last month. This final seminar will focus on the increasing fatality rate on U.S. roadways, and how to counteract the core issues that cause these accidents.

Along with the Department of Transportation (DOT), the NHTSA has invited all highway safety practitioners and indicates that all are welcome who are interested in saving lives and stopping injuries. The summits are intended to gather new ideas, engage new partners, and generate effective approaches to combat core behavioral issues that consistently lead to roadway deaths.

For decades, the NHTSA has recorded a steady decline each year in the amount of traffic fatalities and injuries due to the consistent safety improvements and efforts to incorporate new safety technologies into vehicles. However, the agency released a report in early February that indicated the number of deaths associated with traffic accidents spiked almost 10% during the first nine months of 2015.

Data estimated 26,000 fatalities during the first nine months of last year, compared to the 23,000 fatalities during the same nine month period in 2014. The remaining three months of 2015 are currently still under review, but the 10% increase is anticipated to become higher once the additional data is added.

NHTSA Administrator, Mark Rosekind says that the agency will attempt to change bad driving habits that studies have proven to be the major contributor to automobile accidents.

NHTSA studies over the last decade have indicated human error contributes to 94% of all automobile accidents, whether fatal or not. The most persistent contributors to human error crash fatalities have been distracted, drowsy, and drunk driving, as well as failure to wear seatbelts.