Traffic fatalities in the U. S. are...

...at a 61-year low, according to an article in the Times today:

It may not seem that way when some knucklehead speeds past you on the right, but driving is getting much, much safer: last year the United States recorded the fewest traffic deaths in more than 60 years, according to federal data released on Friday.

An estimated 32,788 people were killed in traffic accidents in 2010, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That represents a 25 percent decline since 2005, when there were 43,510 traffic fatalities, and the fewest deaths since 1949 — when “On The Town” won the Academy Award for best score for a musical, a new magazine called Motor Trend named the Cadillac as its first car of the year, and when there were far fewer drivers on America’s pre-Interstate roads.

What the piece doesn't mention is that the population of the U. S. in 2010 was more than twice that of 1949.