Over 37,000 people were killed on America’s roads and highways in 2016
Depending on who you quote, and the source you use, in South Africa the number of road fatalities varies between 12 000 and 30 000. The fact that we don’t know what the real numbers are, is disappointing – to say the least. It makes the true nature of our road safety issues that much more critical. By now, most discerning readers will know the ‘UN Decade of Action for Road Safety’ has, certainly in the SA context, been extended by 10 years – to 2030.
Two things emanate from the following report. Firstly, albeit the figures are shocking (bear in mind the US population is at 300 million plus) they are current!!! Secondly, if our worst case scenario is correct, SA may be as bad as the US.
Till next time – drive safe and keep death off our roads!
Eugene
Figures released by the USDOT on October 6, 2017, show 37 461 lives were lost on U.S. roads in 2016. This is an increase of 5.6% from the calendar year of 2015. This follows an inaccurate estimation earlier this year by the National Safety Council [NSC] that the figure will be approximately 40 200.
In the context of the NSC’s miscalculation, the lower, more recent, and obviously more accurate figure from the USDOT and NHTSA is a relief. Yet, the situation is still very bad news. Apart from the 5.6% increase in fatalities from 2015-2016, the fact is that since 2014 the number of deaths on America’s roads and highways has soared swiftly upwards from 32,744 to 37,461. This is a two-year increase of 14.4%, representing almost 5 000 ‘extra”’ deaths in 2016 alone.
To put this into even greater perspective, the most-recent road-death toll represents the same number of deaths — God forbid — as having an atrocity on the same scale of the World Trade Center massacre in the USA every single month.
Multi-National ‘Per Capita’ Road Death Rates for 2015 (as published in Oct. 2017)
Rate(a) . Country
- -2.3 Norway
- -2.7 Sweden
- -2.8 United Kingdom
- -3.1 Denmark
- -3.1 Switzerland
- -3.5 Ireland
- -3.6 Spain
- -3.7 Netherlands
- -3.8 Israel
- -3.8 Japan
- -4.3 Germany
- -4.9 Finland
- -4.9 Iceland (b)
- -5.1 Australia
- -5.2 Canada
- -5.4 France
- -5.6 Austria
- -5.6 Italy
- -5.7 Portugal
- -5.8 Slovenia
- -6.4 Luxembourg
- -6.5 Belgium
- -6.5 Hungary
- -6.9 New Zealand
- -7.0 Czech Republic
- -7.3 Greece
- -7.7 Poland
- -8.3 Lithuania
- -8.4 Serbia
- -9.1 Korea
- -10.9 United States (c)
- -11.1 Morocco
- -11.9 Chile
- -12.4 Argentina (d)
- -13.3 Mexico
- -14.4 Cambodia
- -14.6 Uruguay
- -21.5 Malaysia
- -23.6 South Africa
Source: ITF / OECD (colored groupings added by ADoNA)
Footnotes:
(a) Rate of road deaths per 100,000 members of the national population
(b) Iceland always has the most inconsistent annual rate due to its very small population
(c) Statistics published by the USDOT on October 6, 2017, show that during 2016 US road deaths increased by a further 5.6 percent and the per capita rate of deaths rose to 11.59 — See: Over 37,000 People were Killed on America’s Roads and Highways in 2016
(d) 2014 data (OECD)
Numbering in the left-hand column is only for easy reference. Countries with identical rates should not be separated or ranked by this.
Green text: A rate under 3
Orange text: A rate less than double that of the leading country
Purple text: A rate 2-4 times greater than that of the leading country
Red text: A ‘per capita’ rate more than four times higher than that of the leading country
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