The number of traffic deaths in the United States dropped to the lowest level since 1961 last year as skyrocketing gas prices and economic recession cut into the number of miles Americans drove. The estimated 37,313 deaths reported by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration represent a 9.1 percent decline from the 41,059 fataliities recorded in 2007.

 I don't know about you, but I think this is a big deal. It means there are more than 3,700 inhabitants of this country alive today than would have been if the figure had remained flat. It's akin to avoiding a tragedy of 9/11 proportions. One obvious explanation has been the decline in vehicle miles traveled reported by the Federal Highway Administration. But that decline of 3.6 percent hardly accounts for the entiire decrease in road fatalities. We must be doing something else right.

 Maryland played its small part in the decline. According to the State Highway Administration's latest estimate, traffic deaths in Maryland dropped last year to 586, compared with 615 in 2007. Both the federal and state numbers are preliminary. 

One contributor to the decline in fatalities may be a corresponding increase in the use of seat belts. The highway safety agency reported that seat belt use reached 83 percent nationwide.

The rate was even higher in Maryland. where drivers achieved seat belt use of 93.3 percent. That number put Maryland in sixth place in the federal government's  annual ranking of seat belt use by state. It marked a small improvement on 2007's figure of 93.1 percent but a dramatic increase from the 82.9 percent recorded in 2001.

The states that posted higher percentages than Maryland last year were Michigan, with an astonishing 97.2 percent, Hawaii, Washington, Oregon and California. All, like Maryland, have laws that make failure to wear a seat belt a primary traffic offense -- meaning a police officer can pull over a motorist for failing to wear a belt even if there is no other violation.

I can't explain it, but the lowest rate of seat belt use among the 50 states was recorded in Massachusetts -- at 66.8 percent. Despite its reputation as a bastion of nanny state liberalism, the Bay State does not have a primary seat belt law. Also below 70 percent were Wyoming and and New Hampshire, where the state motto is "Live Free and Die" -- or something like that.

 For more details, visit the NHTSA web site at http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/