Crash deaths down

Traffic deaths “fell sharply,” in the U.S. last year in at least 42 states as Americans logged fewer miles due to high gas prices and the weakened economy. Twenty-five states saw double-digit percentage declines, “sending death totals in some places to levels not seen in a half-century or more.” While there could have been other factors at play, experts say the decline in deaths was at least partly attributable to the sharp decrease in miles driven—an estimated 112 billion miles fewer than a year earlier.

USA Today