Asbury Park Press

The year-end statistics are in for traffic fatalities in 2019 and the numbers, once again, are depressing.

If there is any sliver of positive news, it’s that the annual death toll — 563 — didn’t increase. The bad news is that it didn’t go down. It was exactly the same as the previous year.

Given the improved safety features in cars and the continued focus on cracking down on texting while driving and driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs, that simply isn’t good enough.

In the Shore area, fatalities rose slightly in Ocean County (from 39 to 40) and more substantially in Monmouth County (from 29 to 36.) It’s small consolation that both counties, which for several years were among the leaders in traffic deaths, have shown relative improvement. Ocean County ranked fifth highest last year and Monmouth County ranked seventh highest.

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The pattern is disturbing on the national level as well. In 2018, the last year for which complete statistics are available, more than 40,000 people died on the nation’s roads, marking the third consecutive year that plateau has been reached since the Great Recession. After the auto fatality rate (deaths per 100,000 population) reached the lowest level in nearly a century in 2014, the rate has begun to inch up again.

The long-view trend in auto fatalities looks far better than the mid-range view. The number of auto deaths nationally is about 25 percent lower than its peak of 56,274 in 1972, And the per-population death rate is almost one third less than it was in its peak in 1937.

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But after substantial strides were made in reducing auto fatalities in the late 2000s, no progress has been made in the last decade. Fatalities in New Jersey peaked at 888 in 1990. Starting in 2007, auto deaths fell below 600 every year but three. The death toll has essentially flattened out in the past decade, with the fatalities recorded the past two years only slightly lower than the average of the past 10 years.

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It's disturbing that all the auto safety improvements — anti-lock breaking systems, electronic stability control, visual and audio alert systems to help drivers stay in their lane, improved seat belts and airbags, and rear-view cameras — coupled with all the human and financial resources dedicated to education and law enforcement campaigns, haven't translated to fewer fatalities and serious injuries.

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The problem today is largely attributable to the people behind the wheel. Despite all the campaigns to crack down on drunken driving, it remains a major problem. Alcohol consumption is still a factor in nearly one third of all fatalities. And little headway has been made in stopping texting while driving. Cell phone use while driving annually leads to 1.6 million crashes — one of every four car accidents, according to the National Safety Council. Cell phone use resulted in 4,536 deaths in 2018.

Will autonomous cars eventually be the antidote? Human behavior being what it is, don't count on it. In the meantime, we will have to depend on education and law enforcement to help limit the senseless carnage on the roads.