Transportation safety over time: Cars, planes, trains, walking, cycling

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October 12th, 2014

By Leighton Walter Kille, 5 October 2014

In May 2013 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released estimates of U.S. traffic fatalities for 2012, and the results were troubling: 34,080 people died in motor-vehicle crashes that year, an increase of 5.3% over 2011’s total and a reversal of the long-term downward trends. The meaning of the one-year shift is unclear and there is a great deal of nuance within all the numbers, but the litany of deaths remains sobering — an average of more than 93 every day.