2008 NHTSA Traffic Safety Facts - Deaths drop by 10%!

[brian]

Something Good in a Lousy Economy...Vehicle Deaths drop 10%!
Vehicle Deaths Drop by 10 Percent New York Times, Sept 30, 2009
WASHINGTON — Motor vehicle deaths dropped nearly 10 percent in 2008 compared with 2007, pushing down all transportation deaths, the National Transportation Safety Board said on Tuesday.
Highway fatalities, which dominate the toll, dropped to 37,261, from 41,259.
The report covers a year of record-high gasoline prices, and then recession, conditions that cut the number of miles traveled. But the rate of deaths per million miles also dropped sharply, by 7 percent, suggesting that driving got safer over all.
The highway death toll in 2008 was the lowest since 1961.
See the 2009 Preliminary Data NHTSA Press Release
2008 Traffic Safety Facts (this is a PDF file)
For the State by State Data(with clickable map)
Preliminary 2009 NHTSA Traffic Safety Facts (also a PDF file)