The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released a trove of data on 2015 traffic fatalities yesterday which provided my first opportunity to look at this type of data. Nationally there was a 7 percent increase in traffic fatalities, and in New Orleans there were 50 which was the same number as in 2014.

The data set is pretty massive and stretches back to 1974, so it’ll take some time to tease out traffic fatalities in New Orleans over that stretch, but it’ll be worthwhile to have that historic look. Going back to 2010 shows some interesting patterns, including an uptick in 2013 that has been maintained and six bicyclists killed in 2015 matching the total from 2012 to 2014.

Type 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Driver 16 19 14 31 23 26
Occupant 7 6 6 6 4 6
Pedestrian 1 10 8 14 19 12
Bicyclist 3 1 1 2 3 6
Other 0 0 0 0 1 0
Total 27 36 29 53 50 50

Of note, 20 of the 50 traffic fatalities came about because of a drunk driver, the worst total since before 2010.

Year Drunk
2010 10
2011 8
2012 11
2013 18
2014 12
2015 20

Unfortunately the 2015 data doesn’t have lat/long coordinates but I was able to map 2010 to 2014. The results are about as expected, largely clustered along major roads.

I’ll be digging deeper into this data set so be on the lookout for more in the not too distant future.