Accident Stats

I know deaths and injuries from traffic accidents are way down from years past, they say due to safer cars. I wonder though if the number of collisions has stayed constant, or whether better visibility, better brakes, better traffic patterns or better drivers has reduced the number of collisions too?

Somebody with more time should google this.

I'm sure automotive technological advances play a significant role in the reduction of fatalities - possibly the biggest role. Medical advances probably play a part in it as well. Highways are much better designed than they were thirty years ago, and that's probably a factor.

I've tried to find some objective statistics on the interwebs, but all I can get is opinionated crap. Raw data is what we need.

I would leave out the bit about better drivers. Just from my experiences, drivers seem to be far worse than they used to be. I drive far less than I used to and I have quit riding motorcycles - solely because of the declining quality of drivers.

An intriguing part is that there are far more cars on the road (I'm leaving out trucks, because their fatality rate is going up) but the absolute number of fatalities is still going down.