PennDOT Announces Pennsylvania Highway Deaths in 2012 Third-Lowest on Record

Harrisburg, PA--There were 1,310 people killed in crashes on Pennsylvania roads last year, the third-lowest number on record and 24 more than in 2011. Areas of highway safety, toughened by laws Governor Tom Corbett signed, also saw reductions in fatalities and crashes. Those involving 16 or 17 year-old drivers decreased to 44, 22 fewer than in 2011. Some of these laws limited the number of passengers a driver could transport, made not wearing a seatbealt a primary offense, for young drivers, and banned text-based communication. PennDOT crash data showed incidents involving cell phones decrease from 1,152, in 2011, to 1,096 in 2012, and fatalities involving drunk driving drop from 391 in 2011, to 377 in 2012. Some increases included elderly (65 or older) drivers, pedestrians, and motorcyclists.  

PennDOT invested $50 million over the last 5 years in overall safety improvements at about 4,000 locations and $20 million, annually, in state and federal funding, for safety education and enforcement efforts statewide.