New Report Shows Car Safety Rules Save Lives

A new report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found the number and rate of traffic fatalities in 2010 fell to the lowest levels since 1949, despite a significant increase in the number of miles Americans drove during the year. As Brian Wolfman noted on the Consumer Law and Policy Blog, “a combination of safety factors – safer vehicles (prompted by government rules), more seat belt use (prompted by government rules, increased enforcement, and public education), and less drunk driving (prompted by government rules, increased enforcement, and an all-out public awareness campaign) – have come together to bring the number of highway traffic deaths, in absolute numbers, to their lowest level since 1949. That’s astounding given the immense increases over the period in the number of drivers and miles driven and the increased speeds at which people drive. A triumph of government regulation that is hard to overstate.”