Statistics are usually fascinating to look at, but when it comes to looking at fatality-related statistics, it is quite an eye-opening and somber experience. Nonetheless, it is interesting and good to know hard stats that relate to you! Considering we are a Utah-based car accident lawyer/wrongful death-focused law firm, we want to share a few fatal car accident statistics with the people in Utah.
Utah’s 2018 Results
Last year, Utah saw the lowest amount of deaths per 100 million miles traveled with a rate of .80. In order to put that in perspective, the national highway death rate average during 2017 was 1.65 — nearly 50 percent higher than Utah’s. Further, over the last 50 years, the next lowest rate for Utah came in 2013 when Utah measured out at .81.
A total of 264 people died in car accidents during 2018, 9 less than throughout 2017. As a law firm that offers help to individuals from our car accident lawyers and wrongful death attorneys, we understand the severity of these accidents. In addition, even though it may be counteractive to a portion of our business, as every human being on Earth should feel, we are happy to see the total number of accidents and death decrease! As UDOT states all along the interstate, zero fatalities is the only reasonable goal, and we echo that. This is why we try to educate everyone on the dangers of driving and how to drive safely.
One of the common themes we come back to in a lot of our blogs is impaired driving, and the statistics behind DUI-related fatal accidents also decreased! In 2017, 36 of the 273 involved alcohol, whereas, only 19 of the 264 in 2018 involved the influence of alcohol. This is a statistic that is usually one of the lowest in the nation, and with the new emphasis on the lowered blood alcohol level from .08 to .05, that should help continue this downward trend!
There are a lot of things that lawmakers are trying to do to help decrease the number of accidents and fatal accidents, but as our car accident lawyers continue to remind us all, we must do our best to drive safely anytime we are behind the wheel.
Utah Compared to the Best and Worst States
While it is great to see the decrease in fatal accidents, we are still not the lowest-ranked state when it comes to fatal car accidents per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, we are actually 36th! States like Massachusetts and Vermont have been measured at .52 and .78 as recent as 2017. However, states like Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana are much worse — 1.42, 1.70 and 1.51. Even some of the Google searches from those states indicate an issue with speeding and other illegal driving-related things.
Conclusion
As we said before, we do not want any accidents happening on our roads; they occasionally involve friends and family members that we all love. In order to be a better driver and help keep these statistics stay low in Utah, go on and read our other car accident-related blogs! And if you ever need a car accident lawyer to help you with your case, contact us at Robert J. DeBry.
