U.S. traffic deaths rose 9 percent in the first half of 2012 compared with the same period last year, breaking a 5-year downward trend, according to preliminary data that experts cannot yet explain.
Road accidents killed 16,290 people from January through June, the most since 2009, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a preliminary report that does not examine causes.
A final report of vetted and analyzed data could take a year or more.
In the meantime experts can only guess about the causes, which could be linked to the weather, the economy, gasoline prices or traffic safety scourges such as the increase in texting or the use of synthetic or prescription drugs.
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