Truemag

  • Newsletters
  • Thought Leadership
  • Mobility
  • Safety
  • Work Trucks
  • Videos
  • Home
  • Subscribe
  • Contact Us
  • Media Kit
  • Who We Are

The Safest & Deadliest States For Car Accidents

The Car Connection

Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle of the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute asked themselves about the most dangerous states for auto-related death — and decided to find an answer.

To do that, they looked at traffic fatality stats from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for calendar year 2013 (the most recent year available). Just to make things interesting, Sivak and Schoettle did a little fancy math to see how highway fatalities compared to deaths as a whole.

Their findings were eye-opening.

For example, you might expect that states with high levels of traffic congestion would see a greater percentage of the population killed in auto accidents. But in fact, the opposite seems true. In some of the most crowded areas of the U.S. — namely, the American northeast and along the Pacific coast — traffic fatality rates are low. The places where folks are least likely to die in auto accidents include:

  1. Washington, D.C., with an auto fatality rate of 3.1 deaths per 100,000 residents
  2. Massachusetts (4.9 deaths)
  3. & 4. New Jersey and New York (tied at 6.1 deaths)
  4. Rhode Island (6.2 deaths)
  5. Washington state (6.3 deaths)
  6. Alaska (6.9 deaths)

You could counter by saying that because the populations in some of those areas are so huge, the ratios are unfairly skewed — and in cases like New York and New Jersey, you might have a point. But that surely doesn’t explain the presence of Alaska and Rhode Island.

That argument also doesn’t explain why many of those same spots also earned high marks when Sivak and Schoettle compared roadway fatalities to deaths from other causes:

  1. Washington, D.C., where auto fatalities make up just 0.4 percent of deaths as a whole.
  2. Massachusetts (0.6 percent)
  3. Rhode Island (0.7 percent)
  4. & 5. New Jersey and New York (tied at 0.8 percent)

Other states with low proportions of auto fatalities compared to overall deaths included Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Wisconsin.

At the other end of Sivak and Schoettle’s scale, we find states in the Midwest and the South. Those with the highest fatality rates included:

  1. Montana, with 22.6 deaths per 100,000 people
  2. & 3. Mississippi and North Dakota (tied at 20.5 deaths)

To add insult to injury — literally — those same three states had some of the highest proportions of auto-related fatalities compared to deaths as a whole:

  1. & 2. Montana and North Dakota, where road deaths account for 2.4 percent of all fatalities
  2. Mississippi (2.0 percent)

The good news is, traffic fatalities have been on the decline for some time, and today, the number of roadway deaths pales in comparison to the throngs of people killed by heart disease, cancer, lung disease, stroke, and/or Alzheimer’s. Although 2015 may see something of a spike in auto-related fatalities, many analysts agree that the downward trend will continue over time. Once autonomous safety features and vehicle-to-vehicle communications become commonplace, rates will likely drop even further.

Oct 7, 2015connieshedron
Material Handling Doesn't Have to be ScaryTHOUGHT LEADERSHIP LIBRARY
Recent Posts
  • Registration Open for 2024 AFLA Canada Summit in Toronto
  • Mentor Rewards: Can Incentives Help Us Drive More Safely?
  • A Call to Action: All the Ways Fleet Industry Marketers Can Enable Sales & Earn Thought Leadership
  • Subaru’s New Eyesight Technology Can Prevent Crashes with Bicycles
  • Isuzu Celebrates 100,000th Gasoline-powered N-Series Truck
  • Merchants Fleet Appoints Kirk Hoffman as New CFO
  • NAFA Announces the 2023 Green Fleet Awards Competition
  • EV Numbers Rise in Some Conservative Places
  • New Orleans Ignores ‘Clean Fleet’ Law During $50M Vehicle-Buying Spree
  • The Five Cascading Benefits to Creating a Culture of Safety
ASSOCIATION NEWS
Registration Open for 2024 AFLA Canada Summit in Toronto
NAFA Announces the 2023 Green Fleet Awards Competition
Speakers Announced for NAFA’s Fleet Safety Symposium
AFLA Palm Springs Conference — Early Bird Pricing Ends May 31st!
NAFA Fleet Safety Symposium 2023: The Road to Safety
WIFM Profile: Jennifer Chapman’s Rewards Come from Making a Difference in Others
NAFA Webinars: Learn from the 100 Best Fleets
TECHNOLOGY
Subaru’s New Eyesight Technology Can Prevent Crashes with Bicycles
EV Numbers Rise in Some Conservative Places
Protect Your Drivers and Your Business: How to Overcome Driver ADAS Impairment
The Future of Connected Cars Starts with Emergency Vehicle Detection
NVIDIA is Upgrading the In-Car Experience with AI, Streaming, and Advanced Safety Features
Ford’s Deal with Tesla May Encourage Other Carmakers to Follow Suit
2023 Ford Super Duty Now Shipping, Having Passed New Zero Defect Tests
CONFERENCES & WEBINARS
Registration Open for 2024 AFLA Canada Summit in Toronto
Speakers Announced for NAFA’s Fleet Safety Symposium
AFLA Palm Springs Conference — Early Bird Pricing Ends May 31st!
NAFA Webinars: Learn from the 100 Best Fleets
Register Now for NETS 2023 Conferences in Paris & Indianapolis
Fleet Success Summit 2023 Brings Fleet Leaders Together
FMW Brand Acceleration: Meet the Fleet Marketing Experts at NAFA I&E
INDUSTRY ANNOUNCEMENTS
Registration Open for 2024 AFLA Canada Summit in Toronto
Merchants Fleet Appoints Kirk Hoffman as New CFO
NAFA Announces the 2023 Green Fleet Awards Competition
AFLA Palm Springs Conference — Early Bird Pricing Ends May 31st!
NAFA Fleet Safety Symposium 2023: The Road to Safety
NAFA Webinars: Learn from the 100 Best Fleets
Register Now for NETS 2023 Conferences in Paris & Indianapolis

Fleet Management Weekly Newsletter Archive
Access to back issues of the FMW newsletter.

FMW Mobility
How mobility is rapidly changing the fleet management landscape.

Newsletter

Subscribe

FMW Fleet Videos
Video clips of industry leaders speaking on a variety of engaging hot topics in fleet.

2014-2020 © Fleet Management Weekly