By HOPE YEN and TOM KRISHER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — As the number of road deaths rises, the nation’s top safety investigator says a widely cited government statistic that says 94% of serious crashes are due to driver error alone is misleading and that the Ministry of Transport should stop using it.

Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that she was surprised the wording remained on the department’s website even as the Biden administration pledges to embark on a more wide to avoid accidents through better road design, auto safety devices and other measures.

Auto safety advocates have called for the department to stop using the statistic for years, including Homendy’s requests in recent months as well as a letter from auto safety groups to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg last month. They call this figure an unacceptable “excuse” for the increase in accidents. In a section touting the safety potential of automated vehicles, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration’s website states that “94% of serious crashes are due to human error.”

“That has to change,” Homendy said of NHTSA’s continued use of the statistic. “It’s dangerous.”

She said the public should be enraged that nearly 40,000 people die in traffic crashes every year and millions are injured, but instead see it as “just a risk people are taking”.

“What’s happening is we have a culture that accepts it,” she said.

“At the same time, it relieves everyone of the responsibility they have to improve safety, including the DOT,” she added, referring to the Department of Transportation. “You cannot simultaneously say that we are focused on a safe systems approach – ensuring that all who share responsibility for road safety take action to eliminate fatalities and serious injuries… – and that we have a number of 94%, which is not accurate.

In response, NHTSA said Tuesday it would update its website wording in the near future “to address this characterization of the data and provide additional information.” The ministry is expected to release a national strategy next week for measures to save lives on the roads.

The figure comes from an NHTSA memo published in 2015 stating that “the critical reason, which is the last event in the causal chain of the crash, was attributed to the driver in 94% of crashes.” However, the note also included a caveat that a “critical reason” is “not intended to be construed as the cause of the accident” and pointed to other important factors.

State transportation agencies and the department, then headed by Secretary Elaine Chao, later touted the memo as concluding that 94 percent of serious crashes occurred “due to human error,” often when promoting the development of automated vehicles.

Road deaths have increased in recent years, especially during the coronavirus pandemic. The number of road deaths in the United States in the first six months of 2021 reached 20,160, the highest total in the first half since 2006. The number was 18.4% higher than in the first half of 2020 , prompting the administration to embark on a broader strategy.

Road deaths began to rise in 2019, and NHTSA blamed speeding and other reckless driving behaviors for the increases. Before that, the number of deaths had fallen for three consecutive years.

On Tuesday, Homendy echoed other safety groups in saying the continued use of the figure, especially by NHTSA itself, distracts from a comprehensive approach that is now needed. In their letter to Buttigieg last month, groups such as Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, the Consumer Federation of America and the Center for Auto Safety stressed the need for a multifaceted plan to reduce crashes, including publishing long-awaited safety standards mandated by Congress and more closely overseeing the deployment of autonomous vehicles on the road.

Continued use of the 94% data point, they wrote, “ignores the complexity of accidents and undermines efforts to implement the safe system approach that examines how all aspects of the transportation environment contribute to accidents.

In a separate roadmap for safety released on Tuesday, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety highlighted the increase in accidents among commercial vehicles and cited them as one of the biggest threats on the road due to a insufficient.

The administration is more committed to improving the safety of all road users. President Joe Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure act, for example, broadly promotes a “safe system” approach advocated by the NTSB that aims to minimize the impact of human error and protect people who walk and do of the bike as well as drive.

Under the law, about $5 billion will go to the administration’s new Safe Streets and Roads for All program, which provides grants to cities, metropolitan areas and towns to improve safety, especially for cyclists and pedestrians. It also includes new federal mandates for automakers to install anti-drink-driving technology in cars.

Homendy said she’s “cautiously optimistic” the department is taking the necessary steps to strengthen safety, including improving data collection to determine when and why crashes are happening. But she said what worries her most is the government’s ability to keep pace in making the best use of rapidly changing technology to keep people safe.

“I’m very direct when I think there’s a safety issue and where people are dying,” she said. “And you know it’s a duty and I take that very seriously. … Whether it’s DOT or NTSB, we have to work as hard as we can.”

Krisher reported from Detroit.

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