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In 2018, 36,750 Americans were killed in crashes, the Transportation Department reported yesterday. That was down from 37,133 in 2017 and 37,806 in 2016, even as the number of miles that Americans were driving rose modestly in each year. In all, the fatality rate per mile fell 4 percent from 2016 to 2018.

This is a turnabout from the preceding two years — 2014 to 2016 — when the fatality rate rose by 8 percent, which was the worst increase since the 1970s. Distracted driving seems to have played a significant role in that increase.

Federal officials didn’t speculate about why the rate has since declined, but new safety technologies are likely to be one reason. As Christopher Mims of The Wall Street Journal wrote last week, “If you buy one of many new makes and mod­els of car to­day, you might be surprised to find that, as a stan­dard fea­ture, it can do some­thing your pre­vi­ous car couldn’t: It will take over when it thinks you’re mak­ing a mis­take.”

In particular, many new cars include automatic emergency braking, a technology that has the potential to cut rear-end crashes, which have historically accounted for more than 1,500 deaths a year. By 2022, nearly all new vehicles in this country will have automatic braking, Mims wrote. Other increasingly common safety features include rear cameras; steering assistance that prevents lane drift; and a flashing light to warn about a car in the blind spot.