42,642 people died in motor vehicle crashes in 2006. The Institute publishes statistical facts about the motor vehicle safety picture in 2006, the most recent year for which fatality data are available. Fatality Facts are updated once a year, when the US Department of Transportation releases data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS).
The idea is not to send you out onto the roads terrified, but to remind you of the seriousness required each time you get behind the wheel.