Andre1969
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
I found a chart on motor vehicle deaths over the years on Wikipedia:
List of motor vehicle deaths in U.S. by year - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1921 was the first year they show data in terms of deaths per 100 million miles traveled, which is a better metric than simply how many people died in any given year. That year it was 24.09. Here's a few data points to summarize...
1921: 24.09
1930: 15.12
1940: 10.89
1950: 7.24
1960: 5.06
1970: 4.74
1980: 3.35
1990: 2.08
2000: 1.53
2010: 1.11
2012: 1.13
So it really makes me wonder...how much safer can cars get? One thing that also helps these numbers go down over the years is that, in addition to improved technology of new cars, more and more older, less safe cars get taken off the road, and out of the equation.
I'm really surprised that the numbers didn't drop more from 1960 to 1970. A lot of safety advances came along in that timeframe, such as standard seatbelts, collapsible steering columns, standard padded dashboards, etc. The auto makers were also learning how to make rudimentary crumple zones into the cars, although those were still in their infancy.
But, there was also a lot more size discrepancy between cars by 1970. Small cars didn't really get a foothold in the United States until the 1958 recession, but by 1970 they had been a mainstay for quite awhile. And in the meantime, the big cars only got bigger.
List of motor vehicle deaths in U.S. by year - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1921 was the first year they show data in terms of deaths per 100 million miles traveled, which is a better metric than simply how many people died in any given year. That year it was 24.09. Here's a few data points to summarize...
1921: 24.09
1930: 15.12
1940: 10.89
1950: 7.24
1960: 5.06
1970: 4.74
1980: 3.35
1990: 2.08
2000: 1.53
2010: 1.11
2012: 1.13
So it really makes me wonder...how much safer can cars get? One thing that also helps these numbers go down over the years is that, in addition to improved technology of new cars, more and more older, less safe cars get taken off the road, and out of the equation.
I'm really surprised that the numbers didn't drop more from 1960 to 1970. A lot of safety advances came along in that timeframe, such as standard seatbelts, collapsible steering columns, standard padded dashboards, etc. The auto makers were also learning how to make rudimentary crumple zones into the cars, although those were still in their infancy.
But, there was also a lot more size discrepancy between cars by 1970. Small cars didn't really get a foothold in the United States until the 1958 recession, but by 1970 they had been a mainstay for quite awhile. And in the meantime, the big cars only got bigger.