WASHINGTON — Traffic fatality figures in the U.S. are the lowest in nearly 60 years — the lowest ever recorded.

Falling for the 15th straight quarter, the highway death count was at 33,963, down 8.9 percent from 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The fatality rate, which takes into account the number of miles traveled, for 2009 fell to 1.16 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, down from 1.25 fatalities per 100 million VMT in 2008.

"This continuing decline in highway deaths is encouraging, but our work is far from over," said David Strickland, National Highway Traffic Safety administrator. "We want to see those numbers drop further. We will not stop as long as there are still lives lost on our nation’s highways. We must continue our efforts to ensure seat belts are always used and stay focused on reducing distracted and impaired driving."

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration attributes the decline in 2009 to a combination of factors including high visibility campaigns like "Click It or Ticket" to increase seat belt use, and "Drunk Driving. Over the Limit. Under Arrest," which helps with the enforcement of state laws to prevent drunk driving and distracted driving. In addition, the drop is also the result of safer roads, safer vehicles and motorists driving less.

Recessionary pressures on consumers and commuters leading to less miles driven could also be a factor.

Curiously, though, the administration didn’t seem to take into account current hours-of-service rules, at least as far as truck driver-related fatalities go, for part of the falling traffic death rates.

The DOT, at the behest of unions and special interest groups, is now rewriting the rules for later this year, despite truck traffic crash and fatality rates falling dramatically since the rules were enacted in 2004.