Traffic STATS

Next week, a report will be published containing the findings from Traffic STATS, a detailed and searchable new risk analysis of road fatality statistics by Carnegie Mellon for the American Automobile Association. The report shows that some long-held assumptions about safety on U.S. highways don't jibe with hard numbers. It lists the risk of road death by age, gender, type of vehicle, time of day and geographic region.

The study puts together data of all types to find the safest scenario possible. According to the findings, the safest scenario on the road is a 4-year-old girl in a van or school bus, stuck in a Wednesday morning rush hour in New England in February. This is because vehicles with children in the backseat tend to drive at safer speeds and drivers of vans and schoolbuses tend to be dull drivers (a good thing). Also, the fewest deaths per mile driven are at 8 a.m., mostly because the roads are so clogged with traffic and teenagers are already at school. Dangerous driving cannot occur if you are stuck in bumper to bumper traffic which explains why New England ranks #1 in lowest death risk.

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