Another Deadly Year for Texas Drivers in 2015

Michael S. Callahan | | Fatal Car Crashes
car accident

There’s a reason it feels like there is a fatal car accident making the news in Texas every day.

According to the Texas Department of Transportation, there was a fatality every single day on Texas roadways from November 7, 2000 through November 7, 2015. That’s, at least, one death every day for 5,478 days straight, and over the last 15 years there have been over 50,000 deaths total.

Fortunately, while traffic fatalities are bad in Texas they remained steady in 2015, unlike the nationwide total.

Texas Traffic Fatalities in 2015

The Houston Chronicle recently reported that the National Safety Council announced preliminary analysis of traffic fatalities in the U.S. last year, including the numbers for Texas:

“The National Safety Council on Wednesday announced preliminary analysis showed 38,300 roadway deaths in the U.S. last year. That was an increase of 8 percent from 2014, the highest year-to-year jump since 1966.

“These numbers are serving notice: Americans take their safety on the roadways for granted,” said Deborah A.P. Hersman, president and CEO of the safety council and former chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board.

Texas led the nation with 3,490 deaths on roads and highways. Despite California having roughly 12 million more residents, it had 240 fewer traffic deaths.

Texas’ fatality trend was stable, however. The number of deaths increased 1 percent from 2014 to 2015 and 4 percent from 2013 to 2015.

“There’s a lot of improvement (needed) for Texas,” Hersman said, noting the state lacks any statewide bans on distracted driving and Houston is frequently among the top metro areas for alcohol-related crashes. “But, it didn’t have the increases we saw in other states.”’

What Can You Do?

One thing that the National Safety Council president did note was a correlation between the fatalities and distracted driving. This is actually one of the biggest things that you as a driver have control over in helping to decrease the fatalities on the road. Per the Texas Department of Transportation, 1 in 5 accidents are caused by a distracted driver. Just in 2014, there were 100,825 traffic accidents caused by a distracted driver and in 468 of them, someone died.

These were accidents that were completely preventable and those fatalities are people that should still be alive today. Loved ones lost because another driver decided something else was more important than focusing on their driving.

Checkout this moving video about texting and driving:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVnRcIXEqaU

If you have suffered a serious injury or are grieving the loss of a loved one as a result of a car accident, contact The Callahan Law Firm today for a free case evaluation.