6 in 10 fatal crash victims in DMV killed in single-vehicle crashes

WASHINGTON - Six out of ten victims of fatal car accidents in the DMV are killed in one-vehicle crashes, according to newly released information from AAA Mid-Atlantic.

The study says more drivers are killing themselves and their occupants when their vehicles leave the roadway and crash into objects on the side of the road.

The study says of the 6,399 people who were killed in car accidents in D.C., Maryland and Virginia in the five-year period from 2009 to 2013, 3,904 were killed in single-vehicle crashes.

"We are killing ourselves and our passengers," noted John B. Townsend II, AAA Mid-Atlantic's Manager of Public and Government Affairs.

"This deadly pattern is not only occurring on area roads. More than half of the persons who perished in traffic crashes in the United States in recent years were killed in single-vehicle crashes or in roadway departure crashes, compared to nearly two out of three of the victims in fatal crashes eight years ago."