Traffic death toll falls along with economy

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Here’s a bit of good news about the nation’s crummy economy -- traffic deaths are down sharply this year.

The federal government reported today that highway traffic deaths were down 10% through the first 10 months of the year compared with 2007. Through October, 31,110 people died on the nation’s roads, compared with 34,502 during the same period last year.

“One of the few benefits of a bad economy is that you don’t kill as many people in motor vehicle crashes,” said Adrian Lund, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Part of the reason is simply that Americans are driving less. Sky-high gas prices last summer kept many cars parked, and now the rapidly deteriorating economy is forcing many motorists to cut back even as gas prices plummet.

Americans drove 4.4% fewer miles in September than a year earlier, according to the most recent figures from the Federal Highway Administration. That was the 11th straight monthly decline, and the trend is expected to continue when the numbers for October are released Friday.

Safer cars and tougher enforcement of seat-belt laws also help. But the type of driving that diminishes during a recession also plays a big role, Lund said.

During tough economic times, “you don’t give up the commute to your job, which is the lowest-risk driving,” Lund said. “You give up discretionary driving -- driving to the game or going out drinking after the game.”

The government statistics bear this out. The rate of fatalities per miles driven is falling and so is the total number of deaths, dropping to 1.28 per 100 million miles traveled versus 1.37 last year.

-- Martin Zimmerman