According to the National Safety Council (NSC), someone in a motor vehicle here in the United States is injured every seven seconds. That statistic is used to get the attention of drivers and encourage them to be safe, but not enough of them are listening. The NSC estimated that there were 40,000 U.S. drivers and passengers involved in fatal crashes. This means that there were 1.24 fatalities on the road for every million miles traveled or 12.19 fatalities for every 100,000 people on the road. Here in New Mexico, the total was 387 fatalities, which is up 3 percent from 2017's 375. Numbers from state to state vary widely, but New Mexico is right in the middle.
The NSC also estimated the number of injuries that involved medical care. This number was 4,560,000 U.S. drivers and passengers. That is a ratio of 114:1. This total, like the fatalities total, is down one percent from 2017.