Originally Posted by
Roughstuff
The "helpful" chart is exactly that: it shows how much ACTIONS taken by government, manufacturers, and motorists of all kinds have greatly REDUCED the incidents of death on our highways for decades.
Your mistake is in looking only at deaths of motor vehicle occupants. Indeed, crumple zones, seat belt laws, air bags, etc - these have made being the occupant of a motor vehicle in a crash far more survivable so we see a decrease in occupant fatalities, especially historically.
What you neglect to notice is
that deaths and serious injuries of non-occupants struck by motor vehicles have increased over the last decade rather than decreased.
Some of that is due to larger vehicles which a victim is more likely to end up underneath. Some is due to more aggressive bumpers which hit higher in more vital areas
And some is due to the increasing prevalence of driver distractions
On a road fast enough that any collision may be challenging for someone outside a car to survive, the focus is best on the human and layout factors that minimize the chance of collision.