Sign in West University Place, Texas. (Image by WhisperToMe.)

Texting while driving is all the rage in scary headlines, but auto deaths in America have been reduced dramatically over the last five years, just as the handheld computing craze has exploded. What gives? Joseph B. White tries to uncover the answer in an article in the Wall Street Journal. It may be that technology (and other factors) are responsible for the decrease. An excerpt:

“So what’s helping to reduce deaths? Technology deserves some credit, according to the data. Deaths in side-impact crashes declined between 2005 and 2008 at a faster rate than the decline for deaths overall. That suggests that side airbags are helping more people survive crashes, the researchers found.

The Michigan study found a nearly 20% decline in deaths among young drivers, age 16 to 25. Among the possible reasons: the increasing number of states that use graduated licensing programs that delay granting full driving privileges until teens have more experience, and rising teen joblessness.

The exact role of the economy in declining highway deaths is a big unknown. Messrs. Sivak and Schoettle highlight pieces of data that suggest that as the economy slowed down, so did motorists.”