The first members of the baby boom generation began turning 70 in 2016, and the number of senior citizens living in Oklahoma is expected to increase sharply during the next two decades. The U.S. Census Bureau expects the number of Americans aged 70 or older to grow to 54 million by 2030, and road safety advocates are hoping that emerging automotive technology will be able to prevent a surge in the number of elderly traffic accident victims.
Why traffic deaths increased in 2015
Oklahoma residents may have heard that the number of traffic deaths in the United States went up by 7.2 percent in 2015 compared to 2014. Overall, there were 35,092 deaths, and several reasons were attributed to this increase. First, there was a 3.5 percent increase in the number of miles traveled in 2015 compared to 2014, and that was in part because of an increase in jobs and a decrease in fuel prices.
