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Figure 1 - Fatality Rates for Selected Modes

Figure 1 - Fatality Rates for Selected Modes

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Year Passenger car occupants (Per 100 million VMT) Light-truck occupants (Per 100 million VMT) Large-truck occupants (Per 100 million VMT) Motorcycle riders (Per 100 million VMT) General aviation (Per 100,000 hours flown) Air carriers1 (Per 100,000 aircraft departures)
Actual Smoothed values
1975 2.52 2.38 1.18 56.65 4.35    
1976 2.44 2.33 1.32 55.17 3.99    
1977 2.43 2.32 1.35 64.64 4.04    
1978 2.48 2.33 1.32 63.94 4.46 3.16 1.71
1979 2.50 2.44 1.31 56.66 3.16 6.40 1.78
1980 2.48 2.53 1.16 50.36 3.40 0.02 2.00
1981 2.37 2.30 1.04 45.89 3.48 0.08 1.91
1982 2.04 1.97 0.85 44.93 4.01 4.39 1.82
1983 1.93 1.85 0.85 48.69 3.72 0.28 1.94
1984 1.93 1.81 0.88 52.46 3.58 0.07 1.86
1985 1.86 1.72 0.79 50.23 3.38 8.34 1.78
1986 1.95 1.76 0.73 48.59 3.57 0.11 2.09
1987 1.89 1.81 0.64 42.46 3.10 3.05 2.00
1988 1.86 1.70 0.66 36.53 2.92 3.69 2.05
1989 1.77 1.64 0.60 30.29 2.75 3.64 2.13
1990 1.69 1.55 0.48 33.94 2.69 0.48 2.20
1991 1.59 1.41 0.44 30.57 2.84 0.64 2.12
1992 1.49 1.26 0.38 25.06 3.46 0.42 2.05
1993 1.49 1.26 0.38 24.72 3.23 0.01 1.97
1994 1.51 1.25 0.39 22.66 3.28 1.90 1.87
1995 1.52 1.28 0.36 22.73 2.95 1.99 1.87
1996 1.50 1.26 0.34 21.78 2.54 4.62 1.88
1997 1.45 1.24 0.38 20.99 2.53 0.08 2.01
1998 1.37 1.23 0.38 22.36 2.32 0.01 1.92
1999 1.33 1.25 0.37 23.26 2.32 0.00 1.83
2000 1.31 1.22 0.37 27.65 1.92 0.79 1.74

1 For air carriers, the data were dampened, or smoothed, to reduce the month-to-month fluctuations. This dampening was performed using an exponential smoothing model, with a weight of 0.95. Departure data, and hence the denominator of the rates, are not strictly comparable between pre- and post-1977 eras.

SOURCES: 1975-2000-Various sources, as cited in U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, National Transportation Statistics 2001, available at http://www.bts.gov.
2000-Aviation: National Transportation Safety Board, Aviation Accident Statistics, available at http://www.ntsb.gov/aviation/stats.htm, as of Oct. 2, 2002.
Highway: U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Traffic Safety Fact Sheet 2000: Overview, DOT HS 809 329, (Washington, DC: 2001), table 1; and personal communication, Nov. 1, 2002.