PA road deaths drop for fourth year

HARRISBURG — Highway deaths in Pennsylvania dropped to 1,468 last year, which marks the fewest fatalities on commonwealth roads in 14 years, said PennDOT Secretary Allen D. Biehler, P.E. PennDOT reported 1,440 traffic deaths in 1994. “While we are encouraged to see that these numbers are continuing to decline, we know there is much more that can be done to improve highway safety,” Biehler said. “We urge motorists to avoid life-threatening behaviors such as driving impaired, not wearing a seat belt and driving aggressively. Simply, ‘Drive Safe PA.’” According to PennDOT, fatalities in aggressive driving crashes decreased significantly to 913 from 971 in 2007. To be more consistent with how the federal government reports aggressive driving crashes, PennDOT now defines a crash as related to aggressive driving only if at least two aggressive driving behaviors are demonstrated. From 2002 to 2007, a driver only had to commit one aggressive driving act for the crash to be categorized as aggressive driving. Based on the new definition, PennDOT reports aggressive driving related fatalities to be 141, down from 192 in 2007. For more information about Drive Safe PA or what you can do to help spread the word about safe driving, contact the PennDOT Press Office at RA-penndotpress@state.pa.us. Visit PennDOT online at www.dot.state.pa.us.