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Research Question:
Why has there been an increase in traffic fatalities over the last 10 years while the rate of seat belt use has gone up and car safety features have improved? Why does it seem that driving is safer than it was 10 years ago but your chances of dying are higher? Is it us?
As we can see in the graph above, there has been an 7.9% increase in traffic fatalities since 2009 from 33,883 to 36,560 deaths per year and a 11.7% increase in deaths in just the last 5 years. During this time, there was a 5.5% rise in seat belt usage.
The correlation calculation shows that the total amount of traffic fatalities does have a slightly positive linear correlation to seat belt use. We don’t have any data to determine why there is a correlation here but I would assume that as yearly traffic fatalities rise, more people hear about the dangers of driving, prompting more people to use their seat belts.
