The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has announced that driving is getting safer because of better-designed and safer vehicles as they have contributed a lot to decrease roadway crashes and fatalities. The report doesn’t specified any new technology or design changes made to the vehicles, but said the chances of crashing per 100,000 miles of driving has lessened five percentage points in a 2008 model compared with a 2000 model. The study also found that the likelihood of escaping a crash uninjured increased from 79 percent to 82 percent as a result of new technologies and safer designs. NHTSA has made a detailed study and it found that in 2008 alone, because of these safer designs, around 2,000 lives were saved and also helped 1 million occupants keep away from injuries and prevented about 700,000 crashes.

“We expect this trend to continue as automakers add advanced safety features to their fleets and continue to improve vehicle designs to earn top safety ratings under our newly updated 5-star crash-test program,” said David Strickland — NHTSA Administrator. According to NHTSA, in 2010, U.S. traffic fatalities fell down to their lowest level in six decades, reporting only 32,885 deaths while it was 32,310 in 2011. The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which comprises of 12 automakers, responded swiftly to the study made by NHTSA taking credits for the industry’s efforts. They claimed that the roads are now safer because automakers are doing many things very well.

They said new technologies alongside design specifications have played a key role in the decline of road fatalities. The alliance says the safety features were developed and implemented voluntarily by the manufacturers. These include antilock brakes, stability control, side airbags, side curtains, lane departure warning and more.

via Autonews