Georgia needs to focus even harder on the safety of rear seat passengers, and enact stronger GDL or Graduated Driver Licensing laws to help prevent more deaths in auto accidents every year.
That information comes from a new report by Advocates for Auto and Highway Safety. Every year, the organization releases its annual roadmap for auto and highway safety for the coming year. The 2023 edition of the roadmap was released recently, and states were given separate ratings based on the advancements that they have made in achieving the previous roadmaps’ objectives. States marked Green are denoted to having made significant progress on enacting laws that are designed to help prevent wrongful deaths in car accidents and other types of auto accidents, while those that have been marked Red have failed to make any progress that can help reduce preventable deaths in accidents every year. Georgia received a Yellow rating, which recognizes that the state has taken some steps to prevent fatal accidents, but could be doing more to minimize the number of preventable wrongful deaths in auto accidents every year.
According to the report, over a 10-year period, Georgia saw a total of 14,530 traffic accident facilities. In 2021, there were a total of 1,806 deaths recorded in auto accidents according to the report. The report also calculates that the annual cost of auto accidents in Georgia is close to 14 billion dollars.