Warren Buffett said distracted driving is to blame for the surge in traffic deaths to an eight-year high, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The billionaire head of Berkshire Hathaway said the 14 percent jump in fatalities was difficult to explain otherwise, since total car mileage was up only 3 percent during the first six months of 2015 from a year earlier.
“If cars are better — and they clearly are — drivers must be worse (adjusted for mileage),”
Buffett said in an e-mail to the newspaper.
One in four car crashes can be blamed on cellphone use, according to estimates by the nonprofit National Safety Council. Most states prohibit drivers from handheld cell phone use, which includes talking, sending text messages, surfing the Internet or watching videos.
There were more than 18,600 auto-related deaths from January through June, compared with 16,400 deaths a year earlier,
according to the NSC. The group estimated the cost of the deaths, injuries and property damage rose 24 percent to $152 billion.
Berkshire owns Geico, which is raising premiums to cope with the rising expense of accident claims. The insurer's second-quarter results contributed to a 37 percent drop in net profit at Berkshire, according to the WSJ.
Other insurance executives said the rise in traffic deaths can be attributed to low gas prices, bad weather and a growing economy with more people driving to work.
“More miles driven, more cars on the road, more accidents,” Allstate Chief Executive Tom Wilson told the WSJ.
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