Are Americas’s roads getting safer?

Are you one of the many Louisiana residents who often wonders how safe you really are on local roads and highways? Motor vehicle accidents may be a sad fact of life but that does not mean you want to be involved in one. It can be important to see just how big of a risk you actually face. Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration offers a glimpse into this.

Traffic fatality statistics are not yet available for all of 2016 but in looking at the first three quarters of the year, a tragic trend is identified. Deaths on America’s roads jumped for the second consecutive year in these nine months after two consecutive years of declines. And, the two years with declines showed much smaller improvements than the subsequent two years showed declines.

Traffic deaths from January through September of 2013 were just over three-and-a-half percent less than in 2012. That was followed by a drop of slightly over two percent the following year. Then, in 2015 came an increase of more than eight percent. Finally, the 2016 data saw another eight percent jump. Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico combined experienced 11 percent more deaths in vehicle accidents in the first three quarters of 2016 than they did in the same period of time in 2015. Out of 10 regions in the nation, this group had the fourth highest jump year over year from 2015 to 2016.

This information is not intended to provide legal advice but is instead meant to give Louisiana residents an overview of the realities they face on the roads and highways.