Today's Cars Safer, Drivers Not So Much

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has found that new cars and their advancing safety features are the reason for a decline in driving deaths over the past 12 years. If car technology had stopped advancing in 1994, deaths would have gone up since thanks to a decline in safe driving habits. An IIHS spokesman says seatbelt use, drunken driving and speeding are still major causes of traffic deaths, and if those were addressed more vigilantly through policy — steeper penalties, public education, etc. — we’d see an even steeper decline in fatalities.

The study concludes that if cars keep getting safer death rates will continue to decline despite bad driving behaviors.

[Safer Cars, Not Better Drivers, Behind Fewer Roadway Deaths, Insurance Journal]