Rising gas prices appear to be sending traffic deaths plummeting in Florida and across the country, researchers at the National Safety Council report.
Motor vehicle deaths dropped 11 percent statewide and 9 percent nationwide through May compared with the first five months of last year, the council reported.
Preliminary figures show that thirty-one states have seen declines of at least 10 percent, and eight states have reported an increase.
No one can say definitively why road fatalities are falling, but it is happening as Americans cut back sharply on driving because of record-high gas prices.
The federal government reported that miles traveled fell 1.8 percent in April compared with a year earlier, continuing a trend that began in November.
Fatality rates have remained relatively flat during the past 15 years, with 42,642 deaths in 2006.
The last time road deaths fell this fast and this sharply was during the Arab oil embargo in 1973-1974, when they went down 17 percent, and when states raised the drinking age to 21 in 1982-83, sending them down 11 percent.
The Associated Press
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