Numbers Show Traffic Fatalities at 68-year Low

The good news in Union City and across the state is that pedestrians, cyclists, bikers and drivers stand a much better chance of making it home in one piece.

And we have seat belts, improved auto design and education to thank, said a spokesman for the California Office of Traffic Safety.

The office has updated its Collision Rankings to include 2010 data, the most recent available, culling reports from the California Highway Patrol, Caltrans, county coroners, the state departments of finance and justice. The new rankings offer raw numbers and comparative scores, showing how each city compares to others of its size and how counties compare to the state.

Not since 1944 have traffic fatalities plunged so low, “and that’s with just one-twelfth of the number of people out on the road,” said Chris Cochran, assistant director of marking and public affairs for the safety office.

“Overall, in the last five years, every category is getting better,” he said. “Even motorcycles turned around a couple years ago."

Union City falls into Group C: cities with populations between 50,001 and 100,000. There are 103. With a No. 1 ranking representing the worst and a 100 the best, Union City ranked 81 out of 103 cities for its total number of fatal and/or injury collisions.

In 2010, Union City had 119 accidents involving injury or death, and 12 alcohol-related wrecks. By comparison, Newark, a city with a significantly smaller population range, experienced 106 fatal or serious accidents and eight linked to alcohol use. And Fremont, with a population three times the size of Union City, had four times as many deadly or serious collisions with 528 and 72 alcohol-involved accidents.

The numbers show serious accidents slid in Union City from from 215 in 2006 to 119 in 2010. During the same period of time, alcohol-related accidents were reduced by half, going from 24 in 2006 to 12 in 2010.

Public awareness campaigns like those that discourage drunk driving or encourage the use of seat belts have made an enormous dent in driving habits, Cochran said.

But the rankings alone can mislead.

“The smaller the city, the less accurate the rankings are,” Cochran said. “It only takes 1 or 2 to make big changes, Officials have to look more at the raw numbers, how do they look from year to year. The whole purpose is to see what can be done differently.”

For instance, a city with gaps in pedestrian safety can seek grants through the OTS to fund roadway improvements. Those with high numbers of alcohol-related crashes might seek funding for increased DUI patrols, checkpoints, or breathalyzer kits.

The results offered up some mysteries. For instance, Sacramento is the worst in the state for alcohol-related crashes. No single cause stands out.

The OTS is conducting its own public awareness campaign this month in an effort to get motorists to abandon the use of cell phones while driving – the number one source of motorist distraction, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: April is “National Distracted Driving Month.”