That's good news, especially in August, when folks are packing up the family SUV for a week at the beach. But what a change from the doom and gloom of a year ago, when the agency warned that highway fatalities were at the "highest level since 1990" and suggested that the "grim" numbers were a reason to shame states into passing draconian drunk driving and seat-belt laws.

The statistics released this week show that highway fatalities were down in 2003 - to 42,643 from 43,005 in 2002. But that doesn't tell you much about safety until these numbers are placed alongside the amount of driving people are doing. The key statistic is fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. That number hasn't changed much in recent years - 1.8 in 2003, 1.51 in 2002 and 1.51 again in 2001.

Sport utility vehicles have been NHTSA's favorite whipping boy in the past and it's hard to shake the habit. The agency comes down hard on SUVs for their high "rollover" rate. But like last year, it fails to point out that while SUVs are more likely than regular cars to roll over during a fatal wreck, they aren't likelier to be involved in a fatal wreck in the first place. For light trucks (the category that includes SUVs) the fatality rate per 100 million vehicle miles traveled has been slightly lower than the rate for passenger cars in each of the past five years.

Critics chalk up the NHTSA's positive spin to election-year politics. Whatever the reason, we're glad the agency has finally acknowledged the good news about highway safety, even if it's not ready to hop into a SUV.

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