Fewer alcohol traffic
deaths in isles
But overall fatalities increase,
against a nationwide trend,
a federal agency says
Traffic deaths declined and fewer people were killed in alcohol-related crashes on U.S. highways for a second straight year, the government said yesterday.
Hawaii saw more fatalities but a significant decrease in crashes caused by drunken drivers.
Some 42,636 people died on the nation's highways in 2004, a reduction of 248, or 0.6 percent, from the previous year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Alcohol-related fatalities dropped 2.4 percent, to 16,694 in 2004 from 17,105 in the previous year. Safety groups attributed the decrease to all 50 states moving toward a uniform standard for drunken driving and to high-visibility enforcement such as sobriety checkpoints.
Hawaii was one of 23 states with an increase in traffic deaths. The 142 fatalities here represented a 6.8 percent increase from 133 deaths in 2003. It was the second straight year of an increase, but it did not reach the 1996 record of 148 deaths on island roadways.
Alcohol-related deaths fell last year to 60, from 71 in 2003.
"Police in all four counties now do weekly checkpoints, instead of just on three-day weekends, and that spreads the enforcement and public awareness throughout the year," Ishikawa said.
Speed played a role in 67 of the Hawaii traffic deaths, sometimes in combination with alcohol.
A new state law aims to curtail late-night speeding and racing by teen drivers, the cause of many fatal and nonfatal accidents. Drivers under 18 years of age may not be on the road after 11 p.m. and are limited in the number of juvenile passengers unless an adult guardian is present, Ishikawa said.
The "graduated driver license" bill passed by the Legislature this year requires a minor driver to have written permission from an adult guardian to be out after the curfew for work or school-related events, he said.
Hawaii's 2004 road deaths included 31 pedestrians, seven bicyclists, 21 motorcyclists and 83 victims in vehicles.
The national decline in traffic deaths for the second straight year came as the number of motorists increased. When measured by the estimated miles driven, the number of deaths per 100 million miles traveled dropped to 1.46, down from 1.48 in 2003.
Traffic deaths declined in 27 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. The district had the highest percentage decrease, followed by Rhode Island, Minnesota, Montana and Nebraska.
Capt. Patrick Burke, head of traffic enforcement for District of Columbia police, credited weekly alcohol checkpoints and photo enforcement of speed limits and red lights for bringing down the capital's death total.
Traffic fatalities increased 42 percent in Vermont, the biggest jump in the nation, followed by New Hampshire, New Mexico, Alabama and Oklahoma.
Alabama led the nation with 150 more motorists killed, followed by Indiana with 114.
Fatal crashes continue to have a staggering cost. NHTSA estimated that fatal highway crashes cost society more than $230 billion a year, or about $820 a person.
Safety groups said the data showed mixed results on whether the nation's roads were becoming safer. They noted the increases in motorcycle fatalities, rollover deaths and the number of fatalities involving sport utility vehicles.
Motorcycle fatalities grew nearly 8 percent last year to 4,008, the first time it has topped more than 4,000 deaths since 1987. Motorcycle deaths have increased seven years in a row, and safety groups have attributed it to the repeal of helmet laws in several states.
Tom Lindsay, a spokesman for the Ohio-based American Motorcyclist Association, said strong data on what has caused the motorcycle fatalities has not been available. He said the highway bill Congress approved last week included funding for the first major study of motorcycle crash data since the late 1970s.
The government said rollover deaths among passenger vehicle occupants increased 1.1 percent, to 10,553. Fatalities in sport utility vehicles, meanwhile, increased 5.6 percent, to 4,735, while fatalities in passenger cars, pickup trucks and vans declined.
Ron DeFore, a spokesman for the Sport Utility Vehicle Owners of America, said the numbers were misleading because SUV vehicle registrations increased 11 percent during the same span. "So actually the risk of dying in an SUV has dramatically declined," he said.
Several groups said they were encouraged by the reduction in alcohol-related deaths, which dropped to fewer than 17,000 for the first time in five years. Fatalities involving those with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 or higher declined 1.8 percent. The decreases were linked to stronger enforcement programs and a uniform standard of 0.08 blood alcohol level at which a driver is considered drunk. Minnesota was the last state to implement the law yesterday.
Barbara Harsha, executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association, said increased use of sobriety checkpoints by state law enforcement could help to lower the number of alcohol-related traffic deaths even further. The traffic checkpoints are allowed in 40 states.
"As more and more states see that you can do these sobriety checkpoints with fewer officers, they will do more," Harsha said.
Others cited the need for increased safety belt use. Fifty-five percent of those killed in passenger vehicles were not wearing seat belts. That was down from 56 percent in 2003.
"The number of people killed in crashes because they were not wearing a safety belt is an avoidable tragedy," said Bob Lange, General Motors Corp.'s executive director of structure and safety integration.
E-mail to City Desk
[News] [Business] [Features] [Sports] [Editorial] [Do It Electric!]
[Classified Ads] [Search] [Subscribe] [Info] [Letter to Editor]
[Feedback]
