June 7, 2005: 102 crashes, 119 fatalities
Closer look at the crash toll — one day reflects a year of fatalitiesThe 119 people who died on US roads on June 7, 2005, perished in 102 crashes across 34 states. The toll began at 12:05 am in Indiana and ended at 11:55 pm in Texas. June 7 was the day with the average number of crashes for 2005. Pick any day of the year and you'll see a similar mix of crash types involving unrestrained children, teenage drivers and passengers, elderly pedestrians, and risky vehicles such as motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles. This special Status Report shares the stories of 15 people who died that day and lists names of 45 others. Status Report talked with victims' friends and families to personalize the statistics and illustrate the devastating impact. "Crashes are so complicated, so many factors are involved, and so many things can go wrong — do go wrong — that we'll never get to the point where there are zero crash deaths," says Anne McCartt, Institute senior vice president for research. "But if you look closely at the deaths on June 7, you see that none of the people in these stories had to die. We know how to prevent most crash deaths. We just don't always apply what we know." Allan Williams, formerly the Institute's chief scientist, points to the "tendency to blame victims for their deaths and view crashes as the cost of motor vehicle travel. This obscures more effective efforts to address the problem. Another thing is that crashes seldom claim the lives of more than one or two people at a time, so they rarely attract the national attention that could help convince policymakers that this problem is a serious one." The people profiled in this Status Report are all more or less like any of us. Some of them made mistakes. They may have overestimated their driving skills and underestimated the likelihood they would get in a crash, let alone cause one. The risk factors that contributed to their crashes are familiar — speeding, alcohol, fatigue, inattention, and red-light running. Sometimes they weren't using belts. But many people who died on June 7, 2005, didn't necessarily do anything wrong. Most people who died on June 7 were in passenger vehicles. Sixty-three were drivers, and 27 were passengers. Also killed were 10 motorcyclists, 8 pedestrians, 4 bicyclists, 3 riders on all-terrain vehicles, and 1 truck driver. People from every decade of life were involved. At 20 months, Kaylee Haneline of Florida was the youngest person killed, and 92-year-old Mary Millie Lopez of West Virginia was the oldest. In all of 2005 a total of 39,189 crashes claimed 43,443 lives — the largest number of motor vehicle deaths since 1990. Daily death counts during the year ranged from a low of 67 on February 17 to 197 on June 25. One hundred or more people died on 272 of the 365 days.
119 deaths in context — comments by Institute President Adrian LundResearchers and advocates often measure highway safety progress in terms of deaths per population or mile driven, which have declined over decades. But progress has slowed in recent years. Total deaths have increased since a low of 39,250 in 1992. This issue of Status Report reminds us of the real lives and tragedies behind the statistics. They remind us that, despite progress, crash deaths and injuries still are occurring in predictable ways. They aren't random or inevitable, and we aren't helpless to prevent them. We should be encouraged by our past successes. Vehicles are more crashworthy than they used to be, and they're being equipped with technologies to prevent crashes in the first place. Laws addressing alcohol-impaired driving and other risky behavior have made a big difference, and roads are designed to be more forgiving when drivers make mistakes. We need to apply this knowledge more widely. We need to evaluate new vehicle and road technologies that can help with traffic law enforcement. We need to do these things because we should do all that we're able to prevent crash deaths — and because we can.
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