WASHINGTON — So, maybe it wasn’t the recession keeping a lid on highway traffic fatalities after all.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, fatalities dropped even further last year from record-breaking lows of 2009.

Despite Americans driving nearly 21 billion more miles in 2010, the U.S. traffic fatality rate fell by 3 more percent, to 1.09 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT) – marking a new low in recorded history.

NHTSA estimates that 32,788 people were killed on U.S. roads in 2010, it’s the fewest since 1949.

"Traffic fatalities have been steadily declining over the last five years since reaching a near-term peak in 2005, decreasing by about 25 percent from 2005 to 2010, NHSTA state sin a preliminary data report.
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811451.pdf

Last year’s drop in traffic fatalities is welcome news, and it proves that we can make a difference," said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in a statement.

"Still, too many of our friends and neighbors are killed in preventable roadway tragedies every day. We will continue doing everything possible to make cars safer, increase seat belt use, put a stop to drunk driving and distracted driving and encourage drivers to put safety first."

The government attributed the decline to new technology such as vehicle rollover protection and increased use of air bags in cars, as well as educational efforts to do things such as increase the use of seat belts and decrease distracted driving and driving while intoxicated.