David Brown, a research associate at the University of Alabama’s Center for Advanced Public Safety, studied the state’s 2016 traffic fatality reports<br />and found an increase in fatalities involving high-speed crashes.<br />Last year, traffic deaths increased 6 percent to 40,200, according to preliminary estimates released on Wednesday<br />by the National Safety Council, a nonprofit organization that works closely with federal safety agencies.<br />After years of steady progress making highways safer, auto-safety advocates are voicing alarm<br />over a surge in traffic fatalities and fears that the deadly trend is strengthening.<br />We know what needs to be done; we just haven’t done it.”<br />In Alabama, for example, steady budget cuts have resulted in a decline in the number of troopers patrolling the state’s 103,000 miles of highways.<br />“Total crashes were up less than 5 percent but fatalities were up 25 percent,” he said in an interview.<br />Americans believe there is nothing we can do to stop crashes from happening, but<br />that isn’t true,” Deborah Hersman, the council’s president and chief executive, said in a statement.<br />The safety council’s figures typically closely track the fatality totals that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration compiles.<br />Rise in U. S. Traffic Deaths Reported for a Second Year -<br />By NEAL E. BOUDETTEFEB.
