EXHIBIT 82

THE TRAFFIC ACCIDENT PROBLEM

Traffic deaths increased again in 1965 to an estimated 49,000. This was 3 percent more than the indicated 1964 total of 47,700, but it was the smallest year-toyear increase in the last 4 years. In previous years, the increases were: 1964, plus 9 percent; 1963, plus 7 percent; and 1962, plus 7 percent.

Injuries and property damage accidents

Injuries disabling beyond the day of the accident are estimated at 1,800,000 for 1965 with less serious injuries totaling about the same number. Property damage accidents exceeded 11 million, involving nearly 20 million drivers. One driver in five was involved in some kind of a traffic accident during the year. Costs

Motor vehicle accidents cost the Nation more than $8 billion in 1965, nearly double the amount 10 years ago and four times the cost at the end of World War II. The cost consisted of $2.8 billion in property damage, $2.2 billion in wage losses to those killed and injured, $500 million medical and hospital expenses, and $2.6 billion administrative and claim settlement costs of insurance. Travel, vehicles, drivers

Motor vehicle travel increased to 880 billion miles in 1965. This was nearly 40 billion more than in 1964 and 140 billion more than in 1961. Travel in 1965 exceeded travel in all 3 years combined immediately preceding World War II. The number of vehicles in 1965 totaled 91 million, nearly 4 million more than in 1964 and 30 million more than 10 years earlier. Drivers totaled 98 million in 1965, 2 million more than in 1964, and 20 million more than 10 years ago. Mileage death rates

The mileage death rate in 1965 was 5.6 (deaths per 100 million vehicle-miles of travel). This was down from the preliminary 1964 rate of 5.7, and marked the first yearly reduction in this rate since 1961. In that year, the rate was 5.2, the lowest on record. The 1965 rate was the same as in 1958, in which year the number of vehicles and the amount of travel was one-fourth less than it was in 1965.

Travel and death rates on turnpike and Interstate System

More than 18 billion miles were logged on the Nation's turnpikes (toll roads) during 1965, and the mileage death rate was 2.4, two-thirds lower than the 7.6 rate on all of the Nation's rural roads. Completed portions of the Interstate System, including the turnpikes, handled more than 72 billion miles of travel during the year with an indicated mileage death rate of 2.6.

Regional and State deaths, injuries and property damage accidents

Deaths were up 10 percent in the New England region in 1965 over 1964, and they were about unchanged in the central regions. Otherwise, deaths were up a little more in the eastern regions than they were in the western regions, although the changes varied little from the national increase of 3 percent.

Compared with 1961, deaths for the entire United States were up 29 percent in 1965. For this longer period, the New England region had a 45-percent increase, while the mountain region had only a 14-percent increase. For other regions, deaths were up more than the national average in the eastern regions, up a little less in the Pacific region, and about the same as the national average in the central regions.

Urban-rural deaths

In 1965 urban deaths totaled 15,000, rural deaths 34,000. Urban deaths totaled more than 30 percent of all deaths in 1965, compared with 25 percent less than 10 years ago. The urban percentage of deaths has increased each year since 1955, reflecting both an increase in the proportion of travel that is in urban areas, and the multiplying consequences of this increase. The mileage death rate in urban areas was 3.6 in 1965, up slightly from 3.5 in 1955; the rural rate was 7.4 in 1965, down from 8.6 in 1955.

A substantially different urban-rural picture of the accident problem is presented by a comparison of fatal accidents with less severe accidents. Fatal accidents are two-thirds rural. But the less severe accidents, two-thirds urban.

49-959 0-66-pt. 3- -3

Further, it is important to recognize the substantial numbers of accidents in smaller cities and towns and in rural areas off the State highway system. Totals are not available at this time for 1965, but they would not differ importantly from 1964 figures shown below.

Rural motor vehicle deaths by type of road

The 1965 figures by type of road are not available at this time, but in 1964 motor vehicle deaths increased more percentagewise on county roads than they did on State roads, both between 1963 and 1964, and also between 1961 and 1964. Comparisons with controlled access highways are not valid because of the large increase in the miles of controlled access highways being opened each year. Despite this fact, the percentage increase in deaths on county roads exceeded that of the controlled access roads between 1963 and 1964.

Since controlled access roads have a fatality rate only one-third that of other rural roads, and only about one-fourth that of those roads being relieved of traffic, rural deaths would likely have increased about 3,000 to 5,000 more between 1961 and 1964 if the controlled access roads had not been built.

Rural motor vehicle deaths, by type of road, and changes, 1961–64

1 Road miles and vehicle miles for such roads are increasing rapidly; consequently national death totals show increases. These are safer roads by %, if not built, other categories would show much larger death increases.

Type of accident

Three-fourths of the increase in deaths in 1965 over 1964 arose out of twovehicle collisions, and more than half of the increase since 1961 arose out of such accidents. Over 40 percent of all motor vehicle victims in 1965 died in twovehicle crashes, compared with 35 percent 10 years ago, and 30 percent before World War II.

Of the occupants of motor vehicles that were killed in 1965, more than half were in two-vehicle accidents. In urban areas, these accidents are increasing twice as fast as they are in rural areas. While 40 percent of all motor vehicle deaths arise out of two-car crashes, these accidents account for two-thirds of the injuries, 80 percent of the property damage accidents, and about 80 percent of total accident costs. Five out of six drivers who have accidents are involved in two-car crashes.

Noncollision accidents (ran off road, overturned in road) are next in importance in terms of fatalities, followed by pedestrian accidents, collisions with fixed objects, collisions with railroad trains, and bicycle accidents. Also higher in 1965 were deaths in fixed object collisions, and collisions with trains and animals. Pedestrian and bicycle deaths were a little lower.

Factors affecting the accident problem

For nearly the entire decade of the 1950's and for the first 2 years of the 1960's, motor vehicle deaths remained on a plateau, ranging from a low of 35,586 in 1954 to a high of 39,628 in 1956. The decade of the 1950's closed with a total under 38,000 in 1959, and the figure was only 200 higher in 1961. During the 1930's, 1940's, and 1950's, the United States was the only highly motorized nation in the world which was reducing its motor vehicle population death rate.

This relative stability was accomplished despite an increase from 1950 to 1961 of 55 percent in the number of motor vehicles and 61 percent in motor vehicle travel. During the same years, the mileage death rate was reduced 32 percent from 7.6 to 5.2.

In 1962, the 40,000 death toll barrier was breached, as deaths increased 2,700 (7 percent). Deaths increased another 2,800 (7 percent) in 1963, they were up 4,100 (9 percent) in 1964, and another 1,300 (3 percent) in 1965. In the 4 years since the 40,000 total was exceeded, the annual count has increased by more than 10,000 deaths.

Travel, vehicles, and population have increased every year since the end of World War II, so further increases in 1962, 1963, 1964, and 1965 do not seem sufficient to explain the sharp rises. Increases in the quantity of exposure continued to exert pressure on facilities, but, in addition, the quality of exposure seems to be of increasing importance.

Factors in the increase

1. Increase in travel.-The sharp increase in travel alone could be expected to result in an increase in deaths. Studies show that the opportunity for twovehicle collisions increases even faster than an increase in mileage (approximately as the square of the mileage increase rather than in direct proportion to the mileage increase), so deaths would be expected to go up more percentagewise than travel has gone up.

Among the major accident types, deaths in two-vehicle collisions showed the greatest increase from 1961 to 1965; they were up one-third in the Nation, and they were up two-thirds in urban areas. Since the end of World War II, deaths in these accidents have more than doubled.

2. Increase in young drivers.-The sharp increase in births following World War II is now affecting the driving population. These new inexperienced drivers with the highest accident rates are becoming a larger and larger proportion of the total number of drivers.

3. Increase in speed.—Speed studies by the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads show that the average speed on main roads continues to increase. Other studies show that the chances of being killed in accidents increase at a faster rate than the increase in speed; e.g., in accidents that occur at 65 miles per hour, occupants are twice as likely to be killed as in accidents at 55 miles per hour.

4. Increase in small cars.—Although small passenger cars do not appear to be involved in accidents any more frequently than large passenger cars, when an accident does happen, small-car occupants are twice as likely to be killed as are large-car occupants. Compounding the high casualty experience of small cars has been an increase in their numbers from less than 2 percent of all passenger cars in 1958 to about 17 percent in 1964. Although the casualty rate in cars of both sizes was near the lowest on record in 1964, the change in the "mix" of the passenger car population has added thousands of deaths to the fatality count. 5. Increase in motorcycles.-From 1961 to 1965, the number of motorcycles, including motorized bicycles and motor scooters, has doubled. In 1965 alone, the number of these vehicles increased by one-third over 1964. Deaths involving these vehicles have increased even more than the increase in vehicles, jumping from about 725 in 1961 to 1,180 in 1964, and an estimated 1,500 in 1965.