Traffic deaths headed for 82-year low

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By David Mercer | Thursday, December 21, 2006 1:11 AM CST | () comments

Illinois is on pace to have its lowest number of traffic deaths since 1924, a trend state officials credit to a crackdown on drunken driving and a change in seat belt laws.

Through midnight Tuesday, 1,221 people had died this year on Illinois roads, down from 1,325 through the same date in 2005, according to the State Police. That’s a 7.9 percent decrease.

If the number of traffic deaths stays below 1,300 for the year, it would be the lowest total since 1924, when 1,065 people died, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation.

State officials say that more people are using seat belts in Illinois, while police across the state are devoting more time to stopping drunken driving.

Seat belt use increased from 86 percent to 88 percent this year, continuing a trend that began with a 2003 change in Illinois law, said Mike Stout, director of traffic safety for IDOT. Since 2003, police have been able to stop motorists solely for not wearing a seat belt.

“We credit the people of Illinois for this, for buckling up and for not drinking and driving,” Stout said Wednesday.

Stout added that police over the past two years have increased the number of periods when they run checkpoints and patrol heavily to stop drunk driving.

“Prior to that there were three major campaigns: (Memorial Day), Labor Day and Christmas,” he said.

Since then, State Police and local law enforcement have used federal grant money to also target drunk drivers around St. Patrick’s Day, Cinco de Mayo, Independence Day, Halloween and Thanksgiving, he said.

Alcohol was a factor in 43 percent of auto accidents last year, down from 45 percent in 2004, according to IDOT figures.

Nationally, traffic fatalities very slightly increased in 2005 to 43,443, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, up .1 percent from 2004.

The national rate of fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles, the standard used by the agency, also increased in 2005 to 14.66 from 14.59 a year earlier, said Rae Tyson, a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration spokesman. That followed years of steady decline.

Much of the 2005 jump was due to an increase in motorcycle-related deaths, likely attributable to their increasing popularity, he said.

Further annual decreases in Illinois traffic fatalities could lead to drops in auto-insurance rates, but any change would probably follow several years of decreasing fatalities, insurance industry members said Wednesday.

“It eventually would have an impact on what we need to charge to pay those claims,” said Phil Supple, a spokesman for Bloomington, Ill.-based State Farm Insurance Companies.

Fatalities, however, are only one of a number of factors that influence rates, he added.