Transportation fatalities fell for the third straight year last year, decreasing by nearly 10 percent compared with 2007, the National Transportation Safety Board reported yesterday.
The agency recorded 39,397 deaths on highways, rail lines, watercraft, aircraft and pipelines, a drop of nearly 4,000 from the prior year.
Highway deaths, which make up the vast majority of transportation-related deaths in the U.S., declined from 41,259 in 2007 to 37,261 last year, a decrease likely attributable, at least in part, to a decline in driving caused by high gasoline prices.
One troubling aspect of yesterday's report was a continued rise in motorcycle deaths, which have been increasing since 1998.
The NTSB reported 5,290 motorcycle deaths last year, a 2.2 percent increase from the prior year and 42 percent higher than the 2003 total.
"While the statistics reveal an encouraging trend line, there is still much work to be done to ensure that fewer families each year will face losing a loved one in a transportation accident," NTSB chairwoman Deborah A.P. Hersman said.
"We at the NTSB will continue to press hard advocating improvements in all modes of transportation to keep this trend moving in the right direction, because every transportation fatality is an unnecessary tragedy."
Yesterday's report reflects a 14 percent decline in transportation fatalities since 2005, the last year in which an increased number of deaths was reported.
NTSB officials were not available yesterday to offer assessments of what caused the decrease.
One likely factor is a decline in driving. After years of steady increases in miles driven by the American public, the Department of Transportation reported a 3.6 percent decrease last year, a trend that began in November 2007.
The national average gasoline price hit an all-time high of $4.11 per gallon in July 2008.
The price has fallen -- AAA yesterday reported the national average was just under $2.49 -- but with a limp economy, driving levels have not rebounded. The transportation department says miles driven in the U.S. have remained flat this year.
Yesterday's NTSB report, which uses preliminary estimates, also cited a slight increase in aviation deaths, from 550 in 2007 to 572 last year. Nearly 87 percent of aviation fatalities occurred in general aviation accidents.
Bus and motor coach fatalities also rose, from 36 in 2007 to 67 last year.
Some 779 people lost their lives in boating or shipping accidents, of which 709 were recreational boating deaths. The year before, 776 marine deaths were reported, 685 of which were recreational boaters.
Rail fatalities fell slightly from 794 to 777, the NTSB said. The vast majority were persons struck by rail vehicles.
First Published: September 30, 2009, 8:00 a.m.
