NSC: Preventable Deaths Increase during Summer Months
Americans have been encouraged to make safety resolutions and break bad habits.
An NSC news release shows that July and August record the highest number of preventable deaths. 117,041 people died from these incidents in July and August from 2011 to 2015 as a result of poisonings, car crashes, falls, drowning, choking and fires.
“Someone dies every 4 minutes because of something we know how to prevent,” said Deborah A.P. Hersman, president and CEO of the National Safety Council. “National Safety Month is the ideal time to pause and take stock of our own safety, because history tells us that the odds may not be in our favor during the summer months.”
146,571 people died from preventable deaths in 2015, a seven percent increase over 2014. The NSC has released the data on the first day of June, which is National Safety Month. A large part of the rise in preventable deaths, according to the NSC, is the opioid crisis as well as the rise in motor vehicle deaths.