A new report from the National Safety Council shows more than 136,000 people in the U.S. died accidentally in 2014, the highest number ever recorded. That’s an increase of 4.2 percent from the year before and 15.5 percent more than a decade ago.
The higher accidental death rate is being fueled in large part by the opioid and heroin epidemic.
Overdose and accidental poisoning is now the leading cause of accidental death, killing more than 42,000 people in 2014, according to the NSC report. That’s quadruple the number of poisoning deaths in 1998. Motor vehicle crashes killed 35,398 in 2014, 22 percent fewer than a decade ago and down sharply from a high of more than 53,000 in 1980.
Experts point to safer vehicles, improved safety technology in cars, and changes in drivers licensing requirements for teens, such as graduated licenses as reasons for the decline.
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