This story is not best read as a story about guns, this comparison simply shows us a triumph of road safety.

Fewer people died in Arizona car crashes last year than in any year since 1993.

New figures from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also show that the national fatality rate dropped to the lowest ever recorded and that the number of people killed in car crashes was the smallest since 1950.

In Arizona, 807 people died on the roads in 2009. That marks a 14 percent drop from a year earlier, when 938 people died in crashes.

“I think it’s a combination of things: safer cars, more seat-belt usage, more enforcement and improving attitudes of the public,” said Alberto Gutier, director of the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety.

Read more: azcentral.com