Traffic deaths on U.S. roads increased at their fastest pace in a half-century in 2015, sparking a wave of concern from federal transportation officials and safety advocates. This year, the increase may be even worse.
Preliminary estimates released Wednesday morning by the U.S. Department of Transportation show a 10.4 percent increase in road fatalities over the first six months of 2016 compared with the same timeframe the prior year. With statisticians already reeling over the sharpest single-year rise since the 1960s in 2015, the increases together mark a stark reversal of what had been a long-term decline in the number of people dying on American roads.
?Suddenly, we?re losing ground,? said Mark Rosekind, administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Later, he said, ?We have an immediate crisis on our hands?and a long-term challenge.? In the first half of the year, 17,775 people died in U.S. motor-vehicle accidents, according to NHTSA. The number historically rises over the second half of the year because of warmer weather and summer travel. Should the 10.4 percent increase hold, the U.S. would sit on the threshold of losing 40,000 people to traffic crashes in a year, for the first time since 2007. Data from the National Safety Council (NSC) forecasts a death toll of 39,870 for 2016.

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“We’re in the midst of a public-health crisis, and it isn?t Zika.”

?Deborah A.P. Hersman, National Safety Council

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