I wonder is the drop in car accident death caused by;
1) Cash for clunkers taking old dangerous cars off the road so the fleet consists of more newer safer cars
or;
2) People driving less since the recession and the gas price increases
I would bet it would be more likely related to '1'.
I know insurance rates went down across the board 1-2 years back. It's hard to get a car without traction control and ABS now, which makes a huge difference.
According to this study, vehicle stability control really does decrease crashes.
I don't know about cash for clunkers but america's car fleet turnover is 14 years. So from the invention of a new safety measure, to its broad introduction across all new cars, to cars with the feature being predominant, is ~20 years.
