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Highway Death Rate Rises In 2012
Posted on January 17, 2013
Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security officials today joined representatives from the state's Department of Transportation and Governor's Highway Safety Office to announce the preliminary number of traffic fatalities in 2012.
Early figures indicate there was an increase in vehicular deaths on Tennessee roadways last year. These figures include all vehicular fatalities in Tennessee reported by law enforcement agencies across the state.
In 2012, there were 1,019 traffic-related deaths in Tennessee, representing the third lowest figure since 1963 when 941 people were killed as a result of a crash. However, last year's preliminary number of traffic deaths marks an 8.8 percent increase, compared to 2011, when there was a record-low number of 937 vehicular fatalities.
However, despite last year's increase, traffic fatalities in Tennessee have declined by nearly 24 percent since 2004.
"The downward trend indicates that we are moving in the right direction, but we must do better," Safety and Homeland Security Commissioner Bill Gibbons said. "When we began posting the fatality numbers on our message boards, our number one goal was to make drivers think about risky behavior that could cost them their lives."
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