The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, driving in New York has become just slightly less hazardous to your health. That’s because the recent report by the NHTSA shows a slight drop, 2.7 percent, in the annual number of deaths caused by vehicle collisions.

According to the NHTSA there were 1,201 traffic related fatalities in New York in 2010. In 2011 the state had just 1,169 traffic related deaths. That’s a decrease of 32, year over year, or 32 more people walking around today because they avoided becoming a statistic.

New York still holds the title for the longest employee commute of any state, but this belies the fact that although many in the state continue to spend an extraordinary amount of time behind the wheel of their automobiles, they are actually safer than they have been in years.

There are a combination of factors which have come together to create a safer driving environment for people in New York. Certainly the fact that the cars themselves have become safer than ever before has at least some impact on the numbers. Automobiles today are 100 times more safe than they were just a few short decades ago (still within the lifetime of most drivers on the road today) and tomorrow’s cars are expected to be even safer. No traction control devices and collision avoidance systems are likely to become standard on most new cars very soon.

Also increasing the safety factor for New York drivers is the state’s insistence that teens are issued graduated driver’s licenses and must attend an online traffic school before getting any permission to drive at all. This additional driver training is paramount to driver safety, especially when you consider that traffic collisions remain the leading cause of death for teenagers across the nation.

We at My Improv Traffic School congratulate New York on any decrease in the number of traffic fatalities, and wish them continued success in saving lives going forward!