While there was an overall drop in the number of people killed in traffic accidents around the United States in 2010, New York reported a slight increase in the number of people killed in accidents last year. In 2010, 1,200 people died in traffic accidents in New York. That was an increase of 42 fatalities, or 3.6%, from 2009 when there had been 1,158 fatalities.
That is a substantial increase, and it is disappointing for New York car accident lawyers to see that New York has not been able to save more lives in traffic accidents every year. Apart from New York, several other states including Connecticut, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee among others saw an increase in traffic accident fatalities .In contrast, across the country, there was a 2.9% drop in traffic accident fatalities, from 33, 883 in 2009 to 32,885 in 2010.
Part of the reason for this increase in traffic accident deaths in New York State could be the fact that there was an increase in alcohol-related car accident deaths last year. In 2009, there had been 318 fatalities in alcohol-related car accidents in New York. That number increased to 364 fatalities in 2010.
The New York Department of Transportation needs to take a closer look at these numbers, and analyze them to find out why we have not been able to save lives more lives in accidents last year. The agency should also analyze why there are more numbers of people being killed in drunk driving accidents, while according to the trend across the country, these fatality numbers are actually declining.