The Source for Trucking News, Opinions and Trucking Jobs | Highway fatality stats get spun

Claybrook: highway fatality statistics get ’spin’

Claybrook, in a release issued Aug. 10, stated that the “historic low” in highway deaths, an .8 percent reduction from 2002, was only part of a steady historic decline — 46 percent between 1982 and 2002, and not really news.

The number of highway deaths for 2003 was the lowest since record keeping began 29 years ago; although the number of fatalities involving large trucks grew slightly, from 4,939 to 4,986, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

NHTSA’s “latest spin also downplays the real news in the numbers — that 42,643 people lost their lives on the road last year,” Claybrook said.

Claybrook maintained that the Department of Transportation had done an “about face.” She said that NHTSA Administrator Dr. Jeffrey Runge in 2003 said a declining death rate was not cause for celebration and predicted highway fatalities could reach 50,000 annually by the year 2008.

Now, however, “the emphasis has shifted to death rates rather than real numbers,” Claybrook said.

It must be me. Someone explain what this woman is saying. Aren’t death rates real numbers? Deaths went down, but she’s not happy until it’s zero? Sorry, don’t think that’s going to happen.

At least she didn’t bring up trucks. Whose numbers are about the same under 5,000. And the ATA had to put their two cents in saying that

…most truck crashes involve at least one passenger vehicle and that errors by passenger car drivers cause up to 75 percent of car-truck crashes.

These people are completely insane.

Originally posted 2008-11-25 02:00:00.