The Virginia Highway Safety Office recently put out a list of important crash facts and statistics for 2014. Analyzing it can help people understand how and why accidents occur. If you’ve been injured in a wreck, make sure you also know what legal rights you have. Below are some of the most important facts that were listed.
The amount of people who died in Virginia went down by 5.53 percent, as compared to the same states from 2013. In 2014, though, there were still a total of 700 deaths in traffic accidents.
On top of that, 63,384 people were hurt in accidents. Though this number seems quite large when viewed as a raw statistic, the reality is that this was also a decrease when compared to 2013. The amount of injuries fell by 2.66 percent.
Furthermore, the total amount of accidents–at least those that were reported to the authorities–also fell. It went down by 1.22 percent, reaching 120,282 total traffic crashes.
It is interesting to note that the amount of accidents did not fall as steeply as the amount of injuries or the number of deaths. This could indicate that safety systems in vehicles–airbags, seat belts and the like–were effective at protecting those who could not avoid accidents.
However, it could also be said that drivers were driving more safely, as there were actually 1.2 percent more people with licenses in 2014, reaching a total of 5,892,082. The total miles traveled also went up to 81,009 million, which means that it increased by 0.94 percent. These states could also show that technology like accident warning systems may have helped reduce accidents.
Source: Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, “2014 Virginia Traffic Crash Facts,” accessed July 31, 2015
