Report: More Americans Commit Suicide than Die in Car Crashes

(Newsroom America) -- A new study has found that more Americans now die from suicide than from car crashes, a sad commentary that has its roots, in large part, in an economy that has failed to gain much momentum following the Great Recession of 2009.

"Suicides are terribly under-counted," said Ian Rockett, author of the study, published on Thursday in the American Journal of Public Health.

"I think the problem is much worse than official data would lead us to believe. We have a situation that has gotten out of hand," he said, according to the UK's Daily Mail newspaper.

The study found that, even as deaths from car crashes have fallen dramatically, the number of Americans taking their own lives has risen. The paper said previous research has shown that, during major economic downturns, the suicide rate has risen.

The study's results used National Center for Health Statistics data gathered from 2000 to 2009.

Researchers found a 25-percent increase in fatal car crashes, while deaths from falls increased 71 percent, poisonings by 128 percent and suicide by 15 percent, but Rockett thinks some suicides were improperly placed in other categories.

Suicide is now the most frequent cause of injury deaths, followed by car crashes, poisoning, falls and murder, the study found.

© 2012 Newsroom America.

Newsroom America Twitter Feed