“In 2018, an estimated 40,000 people (*in the US) lost their lives due to car crashes --which was a 1% decline from 2017 (40,231 deaths) and 2016 (40,327 deaths). About 4.5 million people were seriously injured in a car crash last year --also a 1% decrease over 2017.”

-Google (Statistical reference link):

“Unintentional injuries accounted for 5.4 percent of all US deaths last year, while motor vehicle crashes accounted for 23.9 percent of those deaths.

*A little over 1%.

-Google (Statistical reference link):

It’s no secret that people die on the road. In fact, growing up in the state of Michigan auto-fatalities caused more serious injuries than almost anything else where I grew up. Which is to say, that it didn’t take many people dying in my home-town for me to understand that there are dangers on the road (*and to become a more cautious driver myself).

Nevertheless, the topic of today’s article is not IF the roads are safe but HOW safe? And do things like, “auto-insurance,” make our roads safer? Or does auto-insurance actually make driving more dangerous?

And to answer those questions… I am going to pull statistics from the internet and more precisely, I am going to be pulling out some statistics and then formulating my argument. Whereby, my argument is that I believe, “auto insurance,” is essentially making America’s roads LESS SAFE… or more dangerous, depending upon your point of view.

But to start… let’s analyze a couple of historical reference points which describe, “how safe America’s roads are today versus how safe the roads were before auto insurance mandates.” Also, in order to assess, “road safety,” I used the, “auto-accident fatalities statistic." Nevertheless, the debate concerning, “mandated auto insurance,” started all the way back in 1927 which makes traffic data before tthat time difficult to find or analyze. Also, it is unlikely that auto insurance mandates were even enforced back then, henceforth, highway safety before 1927 is difficult to analyze and compare because most records from that time simply do not exist.

States like California have had auto insurance mandates that were not heavily enforced at all until roughly 1984, which means that while I was unable to find a lot of data comparing the safety of our roads today vs before the creation of auto insurance in 1927, there is very little data from 1927 to roughly 1970, as well. Most states began enforcing auto insurance mandates around 1980 and even as late as 1984 to be exact. For example, California began enforcing proof of auto insurance during traffic stops in 1984 and most other states began enforcing, “proof of auto insurance,” between 1965 and 1975 according to Wikipedia. So for today’s article I find that this time period is much better to assess, “traffic safety,” both before and after auto insurance mandates. So I’ve used the year 1975 to represent, “before auto insurance mandates,” although this is not an exact cut-off date for when auto insurance mandates took affect. Meaning, to be fair, despite not all 50 states enforcing auto insurance mandates in 1974 (*and several beginning enforcement closer to 1984) it seems that a majority of the US had begun enforcing them in 1974-1975 or right around this time.

So here's the data:

Until 1956 when the New York legislature passed their compulsory insurance mandate law and Massachusetts was the only state in the U.S. that required drivers to get car insurance before registration. North Carolina followed suit in 1957 and then in the 1960’s and 1970’s numerous other states passed similar compulsory auto insurance laws. Google statistics.

(https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/us-population/) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_vehicle_fatality_rate_in_U.S._by_year)(https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-statistics/detail/yearly-snapshot)

US Population…… in 1960 = 186,720,571

1960 - Auto fatalities / Total US population = 36,399 / 180,671,158

= 0.000201%

/ US Population…… in 1970 = 209,513,341

1970 - Auto fatalities / Total US population = 52,627 / 205,052,174

= 0.000256%

/ US Population…… in 1980 = 229,476,354

1980 Auto fatalities / Total US population = 51,091 / 227,224,681

= 0.0002248%

/ US Population…… in 1990 = 252,120,309

1990 - Auto fatalities / Total US population = 44,599 / 249,464,396

= 0.0001787%

/ US Population…… in 2000 = 282,216,952

2000 Auto fatalities / Total US population = 41,945 / 282,216,952

= 0.000148%

/ US Population…… in 2010 = 309,326,000

2010 Auto fatalities / Total US population = 32,999 / 309,326,000

= .0001066%

But what jumps out to me is that the three websites I used (for statistical referencing) had different population totals… which already gives you some level of, “error,” to take into account, when analyzing these statistics. *I used the first population total for calculating the % of auto fatalities vs total population statistic.

But also;

**The death rate from automobile accidents… steadily rises from 1905 to 1940.**

The, “percentage of fatalities vs US population as a whole,” statistic, declines steadily from the early 1970’s forward, although, that could also be attributed to population growth, seeing as the number of fatalities stayed relatively stagnant.

Then total fatalities from auto accidents ranges from 40k to 50k deaths in the 1940’s, 1950’s and 1960’s, then it stays right around 30k annual auto fatalities from 1970 until 2000 and then it climbs backt o 40,000 annual deaths in the 2020 decade, which isn’t a huge deviation over a 50 year span. So, basically this shift represents a meager 10-20k death difference, from the 1940’s to the 1990’s and 2020's which represents only a 40% deviation over a nearly 100 year time span. And while 40% is a somewhat significant deviation, much of that can be attributed to other legal changes as well as, "auto insurance mandates." For example seatbelt laws began taking effect around the year 2000 and traffic fatalities rose almost 10,000 per year since that time. Also, air bags began coming into use around 1990 and since that time traffic deaths fell at first but then 20 years later began rising again because of the rise of SUV's or sport utility vehicles vs sedans.

In conclusion,, in spite of these statistics… I’d now like to mention that I still believe auto insurance mandates are making American roads LESS SAFE, however, the numbers are not entirely pointing in that direction! Whereby, auto fatalities remained fairly stagnant from 1950 to 2010… in sum. And in my opinion this deviation means that, “mandated auto insurance vs non auto mandated auto insurance,” could be overlooked as a cause of safety concern but not conclusively. Furthermore, other causes for dips and spikes in the numbers seemed to effect the total traffic fatalities statistic by about 10,000 deaths per year but things like; the adoption of bigger sport utility vehicles, seat belt laws, and air bags... likely had almost just as big of an effect as mandated auto insurance coverage. Furthermore, while auto insurance mandates probably initially contributed to a decline in auto related deaths during the 1980’s, I stll believe that auto insurance mandates are INCREASING the death toll and the numbers do in fact signal that while these mandates initially had an effect, it also seems that the caution of these reforms seemingly “wore off” after a 30 year period eventually leading to the, "auto fatalities per year statistic," reaching the same levels in 2020 as before 1950. Henceforth, I believe that whatever changes were/are made over the last 100 year time span... be it; auto insurance mandates, larger vehicles, safety belt requirements or air bag installation... those effects seem to always wear off over time!

-William Larsen