A survey from the Governors Highway Safety Association reveals that deaths on the nation's roadways declined an average of 10.7 percent in 2008.
Forty-four states and the District of Columbia provided preliminary data and of those, 40 states and D.C. indicated a decline in fatalities, while four indicated an increase.

According to the survey, many states saw a percentage decline in fatalities higher than their percentage decline in Vehicle Miles Traveled. Most states are not yet able to release an indication of VMT from 2008. Notably, however, of the 19 states that indicated a decline in fatalities and provided an estimate of VMT, 17 reported their fatality percentage decline was more than the percentage decline in VMT-in most cases double, triple or even quadruple the decline in VMT.

Barbara Harshe, GHSA executive director, interprets the numbers to mean that factors such as high has prices, gains in seat belt use due to increased enforcement on seatbelt laws and reduction in driver speeds may have contributed to the declines.

GHSA's survey results mirror a December report from the U.S. Department of Transportation, which noted that the federal government projects the number of people killed in traffic crashes to reach a new record low for 2008. Early DOT projections revealed a 10 percent drop in deaths for the first 10 months of 2008.

The GHSA survey was conducted during the week of January 26. States were asked for their percent increase/decrease in fatalities and VMT. Fatality data is preliminary and VMT is based on estimates. Fatality estimates generally were based on data from 12 months in 2008 while VMT estimates were based on 11 months of data.

For survey results: www.ghsa.org/html/media/pdf/2008_Fatality_Trends.pdf