Fatal car accidents devastate families. Unfortunately, they occur too often because one death is one too many.
Gathering statistics about accidents can help authorities to make decisions that will help to reduce numbers. In Essex County in 2022, the total number of fatalities in auto accidents was 56. There were a total of 50 crashes that year. There are multiple ways to break down these facts by demographics to get a clearer picture of what happened.
The most vulnerable victims
In these accidents, the people who died were most often the drivers. Driver deaths unnumbered 26, but pedestrians were a close second at 21. Passengers accounted for nine deaths.
This is comparable to the whole state in which there were 694 fatalities from 650 crashes in 2022. Drivers made up 383 of the deaths. Pedestrians accounted for 191 deaths, bicyclists for 17, and passengers for 103.
Other demographics
Looking at further demographics can allow for even more insight into what is happening with deadly crashes. In the most recent demographic data from 2020, the race most likely to die in a car crash is black. Black victims number 9.4 per 100,000. That compares to white victims at 5.8, Hispanic victims at 7.1 and Asian victims at 3.1 per 100,000.
Comparing genders, males had a higher occurrence of death in a car crash. Males number 9.9 per 100,000 compared to females at 3.5.
When authorities can gather more data from accidents, it is incredibly helpful. It can lead to identifying risk factors or other situations that could make a certain group more likely to have an accident. Authorities can then create safety standards or adjust laws to help protect those vulnerable groups.