Oakland County Touts Low Traffic-Fatality Rates Compared to State and National Numbers

(RCOC, July 17, 2023)

Beverly Hills, MI – Once again in 2022, Oakland County saw a substantially lower traffic-fatality rate on its roads than either the state or national rates.

The county, state and national fatality rates were recently released for 2022. For the year, Oakland County’s fatality rate remained about half of the state and national rates

In fact, Oakland County has had the lowest, or among the lowest, traffic-fatality rates in the state nearly every year for decades. In part that is the result of the Road Commission for Oakland County (RCOC) making safety its top priority since the 1970s. Since that time, the agency has been a national leader in traffic safety and one of the first and most aggressive users of traffic-crash data to drive traffic-safety improvements.

For 2022, Oakland County’s traffic-fatality rate was 0.66 deaths per 100 million miles of vehicle travel. For the year, the statewide rate was 1.15 fatalities per 100 million miles of vehicle travel and the national rate was 1.35.

“Safety is our number-one priority,” stated RCOC Managing Director Dennis Kolar. “While we are always striving to reduce the number of crashes on our roads, and even one fatality is too many, it is still heartening to see that our roads remain very safe compared to others across the state and nation. That is the result, in part, of all the hard work done by everyone at RCOC.”

Not only is Oakland County’s rate lower than the state and national rates, it is also lower than most other counties in Southeast Michigan. Washtenaw County saw a drop in its fatality rate for 2022, tying Oakland’s rate.

Kolar added that RCOC’s safety efforts are paying off. “Virtually everything we do is driven by an interest in safety,” he said. “Whether it is how we select the projects we do each year, how we design those projects, how we prioritize our road maintenance activities, etc. – it all based on crash data and safety analyses.

“Every RCOC employee contributes, in one way or another, to helping to keep our roads safe. These numbers confirm that what we are doing is making a difference.”

In fact, if Oakland’s roads experienced the same fatality rate as the national rate, another approximately 60 people would die on our roads every year. “That’s a huge deal,” Kolar said. That’s 60 families every year that do not have to suffer the loss of a loved one.”

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