Road traffic fatalities in the US are on the rise, and the Department of Transportation (in abbreviation, Dot) has announced a new program to increase security. Also with the help of modern driver assistance technology, installed in cars.
The record of deaths
The statistics on car accidents in the country are merciless: the number of deaths has decreased since the 1970s, and then stabilized, but in the period of the pandemic there was a sharp reversal of the trend. In 2020, 38,680 people died as a result of a road accident (including 6236 pedestrians) e in the first 6 months of 2021 there was a record increase of victims by 18.4% more than the previous year, for a total of 20,160 deaths.
The picture is even more sinister if the US numbers are compared with the rest of the world: there are many more deaths on American roads compared to those recorded in countries with advanced economies.
On the other hand, millions of individuals suffer from year to year physical injuries, sometimes permanent, due to car accidents: “As if we were living in a war situation”, declared the Secretary of Transport, Peter Buttigieg. Faced with such alarming and critical data, the US authorities are trying to run for cover with the National Roadway Safety Strategy plan.
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National strategy
The strategy developed by the Department of Transportation provides an innovative approach to security which takes into account not only human errors and the responsibility of those behind the wheel, but more factors, including a different way of designing infrastructure, road systems and vehicles. The text includes principles, key actions and objectives that can be pursued thanks to huge investments (14 billion dollars) and closer collaboration between institutions, car companies and motorists.
The drivers of the vehicles, second National Highway Traffic Safety Administration analysis, an agency of the Dot, are undoubtedly the cause of the increase in accidents. More accidents and fatalities result from their irresponsible behavior (including speeding, not wearing seat belts and driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs).
However, it is not enough to attribute the blame exclusively to those who drive, even severely punishing the offenses. The possibility of reducing the risk of an accident, to the point of aiming to achieve the ultimate goal of having zero casualtiesis also linked to prevention and, more specifically, to the way roads are designed, to traffic management (conceived by taking more into account the safety of cyclists and pedestrians and with the aim of reducing speed, even with the installation of speed cameras) and to vehicles equipped with technologically advanced solutions.
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Technological security
Modern and new generation cars can make life safer for the people inside and prevent or reduce possible damage caused outside. Airbags and seat beltsAccording to ministerial calculations, they have avoided about 425,000 more victims in the United States since they were introduced.
Likewise, the new driving assistance technologies (so-called ADAS) they are able to help save lives and limit the number of car accidents (and even bicycles) smarter.
Automatic braking, lane departure warning systems, alcohol detection and distracted driving, cited in the Dot document, could make a difference if adopted by more and more cars, trucks, heavy vehicles and transport carriers. commercial transport. Autonomous driving too, although being tested on a small number of cars, it is enlisted in the service of collective security. Which has become a top priority issue in the eyes of an administration that can no longer tolerate an ever-increasing and worrying level of mortality on the roads.