Traffic
Safety Facts 2001
The National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration is pleased to present
its Traffic Safety Facts 2001: A Compilation of Motor Vehicle
Crash Data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System and the
General Estimates System. This report combines data from two
of our key crash databases, providing statistics on traffic
crashes of all severities.
The mission
of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is to
reduce deaths, injuries, and economic losses from motor vehicle
crashes. Fortunately, much progress has been made in reducing
the number of deaths and serious injuries on our nation’s
highways. In 2001, the fatality rate per 100 million vehicle
miles of travel reached a new historic low of 1.51. However,
over 6.3 million police-reported motor vehicle crashes still
occurred on our highways in 2001 — one every 5 seconds.
On average, a person was injured in one of these crashes every
10 seconds, and someone was killed every 12 minutes.
Information
about these crashes, contained in the tables in this report,
helps us better understand the highway safety problem and develop
effective solutions. Reducing highway fatalities and injuries
requires the continued and combined efforts of state, local,
and federal organizations, and our partners working towards
this common goal.
During
2003, NHTSA will work to keep our nation’s highways among
the safest in the world. We will focus our efforts on increasing
seat belt use, reducing impaired driving, improving inter-vehicle
compatibility, reducing fatalities and injuries from rollover
collisions, and working with our partners to improve the data
systems that are the foundation for all of these efforts. As
we strive to heighten safety on the nation’s roads we
continue to rely on the fine work done by states and localities
throughout the country for the collection, coding, and reporting
of information contained in this report. All of us at NHTSA
want to express our sincere appreciation for the hard work and
dedication of those people who are responsible for helping to
make our national crash data files the best source of crash
information in the world. I want to extend special thanks to
the police officers who provide the lifesaving services of clearing
crash scenes and aiding the victims of crashes. I want you to
know that the work you do in carefully collecting and recording
the crash information that is embodied in this report also provides
a lifesaving service.
