As 2013 dawns, the immediate highway safety challenge for law enforcement is developing effective strategies to reduce the alarming increase in traffic fatalities. After recording declines in U.S. traffic deaths for the first six months of five consecutive calendar years (2007–2011), fatalities were projected to increase by 9 percent between January and June 20121 in the largest such increase during the first half of a year since the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) first began collecting data in 1975.2 Vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in the first six months of last year rose 15.6 billion miles or about 1.1 percent over the same period in 2011.
