Traffic Fatalities Spike Despite New Safety Tools, Technology

NPR reports, “Our cars and trucks are being made with more safety features. New technologies such as lane departure warnings, blind spot detection, vehicle stabilizers and anti-lock brakes can, and do, save lives. Yet more people are dying on the nation’s roadways — nearly 18,000 in the first six months of this year. That’s a huge jump of 10.4 percent over the same time period in 2015, and it’s part of a disturbing trend, according to federal officials, because traffic fatalities rose significantly last year, too.” The report adds that “the government is teaming up with safety advocates, highway designers and others in a new effort to try to reduce the number of traffic fatalities — to zero — within 30 years.”