How many highway fatalities are too many highway fatalities? That's one question that has had auto safety advocates’ and Atlanta car accident lawyers’ attention ever since the NHTSA announced that highway fatalities in the US were at an all-time low.

While 33,960 fatalities in 2009 may seem like good news, there's one group of transportation safety officials that doesn't believe so. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials is aiming for the ultimate highway accident fatality rate – zero. It is adopting an approach called Toward Zero Deaths. The program's goal is to alter the most common driving behaviors that frequently cause accidents - drunk driving, distracted driving, speeding and failing to buckle up.

The group is finding much success in its efforts towards minimizing fatality rates even further. Auto safety groups are urging Congress to set a target of halving the highway fatality rate in the next two decades. In August, AASHTO and the Transportation Research Board will convene a meeting in Washington that will be attended by auto safety experts from around the country. Several states are engaged in encouraging initiatives aimed at further reducing fatality rates.

According to traffic safety experts, more than motorist behaviors, it is advanced auto technologies that could be instrumental in reaching this goal. Atlanta car accident attorneys will agree. With the Toyota safety scandal still making headlines and new recalls being issued every second day, it is easy to believe that our vehicles are dangerous machines. The fact is however, that electronic stability control systems, side air bag systems, collision warning systems, and other advanced technologies save lives every year.

These technologies are still too new for us to understand exactly how many fatalities these prevent annually, but we’re willing to bet the number is substantial. Over the next few years, the NHTSA will mandate backup cameras in automobiles to prevent backover accidents. The agency is also looking at the possibility of requiring noise emitting systems in ultra-quiet hybrid electric cars. The noise that these systems generate will alert pedestrians to an approaching car. 

It's hard to imagine a time when no person will drive intoxicated or at dangerous speeds. It is however possible to imagine that in the near future, automobiles will evolve into protective cocoons of safety, shielding motorists and passengers from death.

Covington Driver Released after Fatal Pedestrian Accident

Even as the family of 6-year-old Suk Maya Monger was holding a memorial service for the refugee girl who was struck and killed in a pedestrian accident, the motorist who struck her has been released from the DeKalb County Jail.

Suk Maya was killed last week. She and her mother had just got off a MARTA bus, and had walked round in front of the bus to cross the street. As they stepped into an open lane, motorist Gregory Armwood stuck the mother and daughter pair. According to police, he had just passed a stopped car and a MARTA bus. Suk Maya suffered serious head and internal injuries. She died on Wednesday. That day, tragically enough, was to have been her first day at a local Atlanta elementary school.

The girl had been in the country for just 12 days. Her family had traveled to the US under a federal refugee program for people from countries where they face persecution. The Mongers had come from Bhutan where they faced ethnic cleansing. Suk Maya herself was born in a refuge camp in Nepal where her family lived for 10 years. There was no access to schools, and they survived on relief, along with about 200,000 Nepalese refugees. At the time of the accident, the family was still applying for social security numbers. Obviously, they have little money, and this is an unimaginably tragic time for them.

According to a Clarkston police officer who witnessed the accident, Armwood passed a vehicle and then a bus. State records show that this man has racked up several traffic offenses over the past 17 years, including drunk driving, running stop signs and speeding. In 2003, he was convicted in DeKalb County for driving at 75mph in a 55mph zone.

Armwood seems to have a history of disobeying traffic rules. Unfortunately a 6-year-old girl, who came into this country looking for a better life, has paid the price.  This was a man who, with his record history of traffic violations, should not have found it that easy to drive a car and mow down an innocent girl. We hope this time round, Armwood is prosecuted vigorously to prevent him from getting back on the streets where he could be a danger to others like little Suk Maya. 

The DeKalb County pedestrian accident attorneys at the Katz Law Firm represent victims of injured pedestrians in DeKalb County and across Georgia.