Red-light camera tickets may be returning to a stop light near you with a reduced fine, and a likelihood that you pay no matter what if Assembly Bill 666 is approved in California.

AB 666 -- also known as the “Devil’s Bill” by the opposition -- was introduced by Assemblyman Bob Wieckowski in Sacramento early February, and would make the process of settling a red light camera ticket a civil process rather than criminal, meaning a driver wouldn’t have the right to a trial.

Last July, the red light camera ticket program through which tickets could get as high as $500 was shut down. Payment of the violations was already voluntary as of 2011. 

With the new bill, a judge would not oversee the case, and the owner of the car would be responsible to pay the ticket regardless of whether the owner was driving or not.

“The problem is you don’t have the same right in an administrative hearing as you would in a court of law,” said Jay Beeber, an opponent of the bill and founder of the website www.StopAB666.com. “The ticket is the only evidence that has to be presented against you.”

Supporters of the bill, however, argued that the objective is not to punish drivers, but to stop motorists from running red lights.

“Last year in California, probably 600 pedestrians were killed in traffic accidents,” said David Grant, of California Walks, an organization that advocates for safer walking communities. “Half those people would be alive today if we actually enforced the laws we’ve got.”

Less than 40 percent of red light camera photos result in citations, Grant said.

Nick Ut / AP, file

A red-light camera setup is shown in Los Angeles in 2010.

“The current system just doesn’t work,” Grant said.

Another issue the bill would change is the current “snitch” ticket. As current law stands, a notice, not a ticket, is sent out to the owner of the car if the camera could not determine if the owner was driving. The owner of the car can inform on the person driving or simply ignore the citation, making it more difficult to collect a fine.

AB666 would change this provision, and the owner would have to snitch or pay, making someone responsible regardless of who was driving.

“You can make the owner of the car responsible for anything that happens in their car no matter what,” Beeber said.

But supporters of the bill said the bill would make the red light camera ticket the same as a parking ticket. The owner of the car must pay, regardless if the owner -- or a friend -- parked the car illegally.

“But a parking ticket doesn’t result in a point on your record,” Beeber said.

Grant said that the problem is running red lights and committing “rolling stops.”

“Two thirds of pedestrians hit are people hit in crosswalks,” Grant said. “We want to cut the cost in half, increase the number of people who have to pay, and discourage people from running red lights.”

NBC4's Conan Nolan contributed to this report.

Related story: Resistance builds against red-light traffic cameras

The number of 16- and 17-year-old drivers who died in traffic accidents rose significantly in the first half of 2012, creeping back toward what traffic safety experts called "unacceptable" levels, according to research published Tuesday.

The report — a preliminary compilation of data from all 50 states and the District of Columbia by the Governors Highway Safety Association — found that 240 16- and 17-year-olds died behind the wheel from January through June 2012. That's a 19 percent increase over the same period in 2011 and a startling 26 percent more than in the first half of 2010.

It also outpaces the rise in overall traffic deaths last year, which increased by 5 percent, the National Safety Council reported last week.

The report identified no single overarching reason teen mortality jumped. Instead, it theorizes that two-decade-old state regulations on the youngest drivers haven't kept up with the teen driving population, which has been given more reasons to drive by the improving economy. And like numerous other traffic safety groups, the governors association warned of the distractions posed by cellphones and other electronics.

"We know from research and experience that teen drivers are not only a danger to themselves, but also a danger to others on the roadways," said Kendall Poole, chairman of the governors' safety organization and director of the Tennessee Governor's Highway Safety Office.

The rise in deaths last year is "unacceptable," he said.

Separate data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, peg traffic accidents as the single biggest killer of U.S. teens, accounting for more than third of all deaths among Americans 15 to 20 years old.

Read the full report, including state-by-state data (.pdf)

Until 2011, the number of deaths among beginning drivers had been falling since 2002, when it hit a modern annual record of 544. That was roughly a decade after states began adopting so-called graduated driver licensing laws, which impose restrictions on the youngest drivers in stages as they approach age 18. 

All 50 states now have such laws, and increases in deaths over the last two years could simply reflect officials' and parents' letting their guard down as the laws have become a part of everyday life, said Allan Williams, former chief scientist for the National Highway Traffic Safety Institute, who conducted the study.

The improving economy may also be an incentive for more teenagers to drive, statistically increasing their risk, Williams said.

Whatever the reason, "based on 2011 final data and the early look at 2012, it appears that we are headed the wrong direction," he said.

The report called on states to renew their focus on graduated driving laws and to establish programs to help parents keep their children safe.

"Parents have a huge responsibility to ensure safe teen driving behavior," said Barbara Harsha, executive director the governors group. "States can facilitate this by providing innovative programs that bring parents and teens together around this issue."

The NHTSA has proposed new federal grants to help states fine-tune and enforce their graduated driver laws. To qualify for the money, states would have to require new drivers to go through a learner's permit stage and an intermediate permit stage before they could get full licenses.

Public comment on the proposals closes April 23.

The proposals closely mirror a three-part program to restrict beginning drivers recommended by the governors safety group. That template calls for:

• A learner's permit beginning no earlier than age 16, lasting at least six months and requiring 30 to 50 hours of parent-certified supervision.
• An intermediate stage lasting at least until age 18, including a ban on driving after 9 or 10 p.m., with a limit of one teen passenger.
• A ban on all cellphones and other electronic devices.

"Our main goal is to save lives," said Jeff Bledsoe, sheriff of Dickson County, Tenn., whose state has already put most of those ideas in place.

Dickson especially stressed the ban on electronics behind the wheel, telling NBC station WSMV of Nashville: "With all of the technology we have these days — with cell phones and other items in the vehicle that could take our focus off the roadway — we have to be cautious and know what a huge responsibility it is when we operate a vehicle."

Related

National Safety Council: Traffic deaths surged in 2012

Red state, blue state divide reflected in fatal traffic accidents

Authorities could go even further in West Virginia, where a measure was introduced in the state House last week to require beginning drivers to pass drug tests — three of them, once before they could get a learner's permit, again before they could step up to an intermediate license and one last time before they could get a full license.

"Obviously, any time you can take an opportunity to try and eliminate drugs — and especially in driving — that's obviously a good thing," said Bernie Buttrey, a driver's education instructor in Parkersburg, W.Va.

Buttrey told NBC station WTAP of Parkersburg that he was hesitant because of the constitutional implications, but he said such tests may be reasonable to ensure that beginning teenage drivers remain safe.

"We've passed laws that some people think maybe are excessive in the use of your cellphones, but I think evidence proves that the less you use your cellphone, the less you're distracted," he said. "So this is just maybe another step in the right direction."

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An engagement stunt last month brought the 10 Freeway in the Los Angeles area to a standstill, went viral on YouTube and could have sent a newly-engaged couple to jail -- but, so far, they are free and looking forward to their wedding.

"(Police) haven't called me. They haven't showed up to my house. As far as him, I mean it's just been rumors, but no one's contacted us," said Paige Hernandez, the bride-to-be who was proposed to by longtime boyfriend, Hector "Tank" Martinez on Jan. 27.

"I'm not nervous," she said. "I have nothing to hide. We have nothing to hide."

During a motorcycle ride with close to 400 other bikers, Martinez stopped traffic on the 10 Freeway near West Covina, Calif., deployed a pink smoke bomb and got down on one knee.

Previous video from NBCLosAngeles.com: Motorcyclists shut down freeway for marriage proposal

"When he got off (the bike), I was like, 'We're on the 10 freeway. What are you doing? What's going on? And then as soon as he reached for his pocket, I was like, 'no way.' I was like, 'what's going on?' I knew right away," Hernandez said.

The California Highway Patrol announced it was investigating the incident after a YouTube video documenting the proposal started racking up views and drawing the attention of media outlets.

"It's a public safety issue as well," CHP Officer Jose Barrios said at the time. "Reckless driving, stopping when it's not an emergency stop -- just a few of the violations they were committing at the time."

In another high-profile freeway-halting incident, a band from Orange County shut down the 101 Freeway in Hollywood on Oct. 12 and played atop a tour bus. The three band members ended up facing criminal charges.

Hernandez said the proposal was spontaneous, because Martinez told her that he was planning to propose at a Hooters restaurant with her family later that day.

Also on NBCLosAngeles.com: Riverside officer remembered as 'ideal policeman'

The couple is getting a backlash from some, who say the stunt is a perfect example of why biking has a bad name.

"This kind of action reinforces the negative stereotype people have about bikers as troublemakers," said one comment on the video's YouTube account.

"It was just unfortunate to hear that there was such a negative perspective on the video," Hernandez said. "I mean, coming from the bike scene, not all bikers are bad."

When asked about the wedding, she said: "We're thinking anywhere from a-year-and-a-half to two years."

Arizona Department of Transportation

Westbound Interstate 10 in Phoenix, already a notoriously congested freeway, was closed after a semi-trailer overturned Wednesday, Feb. 13, and spilled French vanilla coffee creamer.

One of the busiest interstates in the U.S. was closed for 12 hours Wednesday after a semi-trailer transporting French vanilla coffee creamer overturned in Phoenix, coating more than 150 feet of the highway with a white slick of delicious-smelling traffic hazard.

The trailer crashed into a guardrail and overturned on westbound Interstate 10 at about 1 a.m., NBC station KPNX reported. Authorities said the driver suffered only minor injuries.

The accident happened at a massive interchange called the Mini Stack, where I-10, a state highway and a state bypass all converge in northeastern Phoenix. It's the busiest interchange in Arizona, and a Forbes magazine study in 2007 identified it as the fourth most congested "traffic trap" in the country.

Authorities initially were more concerned that the truck spilled diesel fuel, but that turned out to be a secondary issue. The bigger problem was the white slick of coffee creamer that oozed over 150 feet of freeway, Carrick Cook, a spokesman for the state Public Safety Department, told The Arizona Republic.

The freeway reopened around 1 p.m. (3 p.m. ET). Meanwhile, a separate accident on the bypass was aggravating delays for drivers bailing out on I-10, the Republic reported.

Follow M. Alex Johnson on Twitter and Facebook.

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Get caught speeding? Running a red light? Leaving the scene of an accident? For years, it was no problem, authorities say -- so long as you were in Philadelphia and knew the right people.

The city's traffic court was the place where moving violations went to die, according to a federal indictment that charged nine judges with fixing tickets for friends, relatives, business associates and political allies.

A "widespread culture of giving breaks on traffic citations'' persisted in the city, federal prosecutors alleged, though everyday citizens were out of luck. Only the well-connected got breaks.

Defense attorneys suggested that the judges made no money from the favors and that the court has worked that way for a century.

The defendants include six current and former Philadelphia traffic court judges and three suburban judges who had stints at the court. Among them is former Traffic Court Judge Willie Singletary, who had been kicked out of office for showing cellphone photos of his genitals to a female clerk. A court clerk and two businessmen also were charged.

Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Gary S. Glazer, a former federal prosecutor tapped by Pennsylvania Chief Justice Ronald Castille to clean up traffic court, hailed Thursday's indictment as a "very positive step toward reforming the institution.''

"It has historically been a terribly troubled place,'' he told The Associated Press.

The state's Judicial Conduct Board moved quickly to suspend the judges without pay, pending the outcomes of their cases. Traffic court judges, who are not required to be lawyers, make about $91,000 per year.

Philadelphia ward leaders and Democratic City Committee associates, along with family and friends, regularly contacted the judges to seek help with traffic tickets. Judges would trade favors if the case wasn't assigned to them and would either dismiss or reduce the ticket, helping people avoid steep fines and points on their licenses, authorities charged.

The judges and their staffs took steps to hide the system of "consideration'' by shredding paperwork, speaking in code and keeping a tight circle, according to court papers.

"A well-understood conspiracy of silence fell over the system and its participants,'' the indictment said.

The scheme kept unsafe drivers on the road and deprived the city and state of revenues, U.S. Attorney Zane Memeger said.

Read more at NBCPhiladelphia.com

Defense lawyers said their clients never took a dime, and simply did things the way they've been done for decades -- and the way they were trained to do.

"It's been my experience that any little old lady in the suburbs ... can walk in to her local magistrate judge, and expect to get a reduction in her charge,'' said Singletary's lawyer, William J. Brennan. "I don't think that's fraud. It's just kind of the way it works.''

The 77-count indictment noted that Singletary had openly campaigned on a promise that he would do favors for supporters.

"There's going to be a basket going around because I'm running for traffic court judge, right, and I need some money,'' the indictment quoted Singletary as saying at a 2007 motorcycle club meeting. ``I got some stuff that I got to do, but if you all can give me twenty dollars you're going to need me in traffic court, am I right about that? ... Now you all want me to get there, you're all going to need my hook-up, right?''

The indictment also charges Singletary with lying to the FBI, and three judges with lying to the grand jury.

Other defendants include sitting judges Michael J. Sullivan, Michael Lowry and Fortunato N. Perri Sr.; suspended Traffic Court Judge Robert Mulgrew; former Traffic Court Judges Thomasine Tynes and Singletary; and former traffic court director William Hird, who retired last year after the investigation broke.

Perri, a senior judge and a longtime fixture at the court, accepted free car repairs, towing, seafood and videos in exchange for help with traffic tickets, the indictment charged.

"When you call, I move, brother, believe me. I move everybody,'' he told Henry P. Alfano, a junkyard owner and strip club landlord who provided some of the freebies, the indictment said.

It was not clear who was representing either man, or some of the other defendants. Lowry's lawyer, Michael Schwartz, declined to comment.

Court workers should have been trained in ethics and warned that new policies were being adopted, said defense lawyer Gregory Pagano, who represents Hird.

"It's a shame. None of these people were on the take here. Not a person took a single dime. Billy Hird was doing his job as he was taught to do it, and the way it was being done for almost 100 years, really,'' Pagano said. "They've got to take the fall for everyone who's come before them... It's very unfair.''

Pennsylvania Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, a Republican from the Philadelphia suburbs who plans to introduce legislation abolishing traffic court, called it an institution "with a multi-generational tradition of dysfunction'' and predicted Thursday's indictment would accelerate consideration of the bill.

"Traffic Court is not worth saving,'' he declared.

No other county in Pennsylvania has a dedicated traffic court. Traffic offenses outside Philadelphia are typically handled by district judges who preside over a wide range of criminal and civil matters. 

Here is a list of the defendants 

• Michael J. Sullivan (sitting Judge, Traffic Court)
• Michael Lowry (sitting Judge, Traffic Court)
• Robert Mulgrew (former Judge, Traffic Court)
• Willie Singletary (former Judge, Traffic Court)
• Thomasine Tynes (former Judge, Traffic Court)
• Mark A. Bruno (Chester County Magisterial District) 
• H. Warren Hogeland (Bucks County Senior Magisterial District Judge)
• Kenneth Miller (Delaware County Senior District Judge)
• Fortunato N. Perri, Sr. (Senior Judge, Traffic Court)          
• William Hird (former Director of Records, Traffic Court)
• Henry P. Alfano (local businessman)
• Robert Moy (local businessman)

WDIV

Dozens of cars and trucks were involved in a pileup on I-75 in Michigan on Thursday.

A massive chain-reaction crash on an interstate highway in Detroit on Thursday killed three people, including two children, and left at least 40 injured, local authorities said. That was the first of three major pileups reported on icy Michigan roads Thursday amid blinding snow squalls.

The accident on I-75 in Detroit, which involved cars as well as semi trucks, killed two children in one vehicle and one adult in another vehicle, Michigan State Police confirmed. There were six crash scenes over an approximately one-mile-long stretch, involving 30-35 vehicles, they said. In total, 300-400 vehicles were on the stretch of roadway, most of them blocked by the wreckage.

Motorists and passengers who were able to climb out of their vehicles huddled together on the side of the road, some visibly distraught, others looking dazed. A man and woman hugged under the gray, cloud-filled skies, a pair of suitcases next to them and a bumper on the ground behind.

Motorists interviewed by the Detroit Free Press described a sudden snow squall that whipped through the area, blinding them. Drivers slammed on their brakes and then slid on the icy road, they said.

"It got real bad, real quick," Greg Galuszka of Brownstown Township told the paper. "It turned to ice real quick."

The accident started in the southbound lanes of the I-75 bridge across the Rouge River in southwest Detroit, according to the Michigan Department of Transportation.

At least a dozen people were transported to area hospitals to be treated for injuries, including broken bones, head trauma and lacerations, the Free Press reported, citing Detroit EMS Chief Jerald James. He said at least 30 more people were treated for injuries at the scene.

Many people in the cars had left their vehicles and moved a safe distance from the crash, according to WDIV. The Red Cross was on the scene handing out blankets, food and beverages as authorities worked to clear the debris and get the busy thoroughfare reopened.

Michael Conroy / AP

Police and emergency personal work the scene of a pileup involving more than 40 vehicles, many of the semi truck trailers, on I-70 in Plainfield, Ind., Thursday.

Elsewhere in Michigan, a pileup of about 10 tractor-trailers and about six cars on westbound I-94 caused some injuries, but no fatalities had been reported, according to state police.

A third multiple-car crash took place on U.S. Highway 23 in Genesee County, according to Chris Swanson in the sheriff's office. What began with a rolled pickup truck quickly escalated into a massive pileup that included 52 cars and five semi-trucks, he said. There were no fatalities, though 14 people were transported to hospitals with varying degrees of injury, none of which was considered life-threatening, Swanson said.

The state's transportation department is providing frequent updates on all three accidents through its Twitter account. At about 3:30 ET, the department tweeted that all lanes of I-75 had been reopened.

Michigan didn't get its first major snowfall until after Christmas — later than usual. Like most of the Midwest, it was expected to get less snow than normal as major storm systems veered to the north and south of the state.

But Detroit is apparently now experiencing snow caused by the "lake effect," when a cold wave crosses over the warmer-than-normal water of the Great Lakes.

WXYZ-TV in Detroit reported a winter weather advisory in effect until 7 p.m. Thursday.

"Watch for bursts of heavy snow and icy roads.... Snow accumulations of 2-4 inches will be possible with these intense snow bands," with winds gusting up to 35 miles per hour, according to the forecast. "Visibilities could go close to zero in the heaviest bands of snow."

Meanwhile, another multicar crash was being reported on I-70 in Hendricks County, Ind., NBC affiliate WTHR reported. According to the initial accounts, that pileup involves dozens of vehicles and serious injuries. The report cites snow squalls and slippery roads there as well and says the interstate is shut down in both directions at the site west of Indianapolis, near mile marker 65.

A 9-year-old girl in New Lenox, Ill., is being called a hero for saving her mother's life by stopping their speeding car from crashing.

"At one point she went through a stop light and then at another point she was going over 70 miles per hour, and on the secondary road," said Alex Sheridan about the incident that happened a week earlier.

Sheridan's mother, Jennifer, went into diabetic shock while driving them home from a cousin's basketball game and lost control of their vehicle.

"I guess I went off the road and down through a little ditch and we were kind of heading towards trees and a sign and a utility pole," said Jennifer, who was phasing in and out of consciousness during the shock.

The vehicle was about to hit a tree when Sheridan reached over and turned off the key to stop the car. Then she continued to hold the key to prevent her mother from starting the car before help arrived.

When her father called to check on their delay, Sheridan told him what had happened and that they were lost. She then quickly snapped a picture of "Wood's Auto Body" and sent it to her dad, who was able to determine they were on Laraway Road in Frankfort.

Fortunately, both mom and daughter were OK. Jennifer is now wearing a special insulin pump to help prevent her going back into shock. She is grateful for her daughter's quick thinking.

"She saved her mom, she saved herself, she's an amazing kid," Jennifer said.

When Jonathan Frieman of San Rafael, Calif., showed up to traffic court on Monday morning – for driving alone in a carpool lane – he wasn’t surprised the judge didn’t buy his argument that his incorporation papers should count as the second passenger.

“A win would mean that everyone could use incorporation papers in the carpool lane,” Frieman told NBC News. “I don’t think the judge was going to rule that way. I don’t know if he had that kind of latitude.”

In court, Frieman and his attorney argued that his incorporation papers should count as a passenger because California’s Vehicle Code defines a person as  “natural person, firm, copartnership, association, limited liability company, or corporation.”

Frieman has 30 days to appeal, which he plans to do. After all, he has been dreaming of this for more than a decade.

“About 11 years ago, I saw all these corporations intruding into the environment,” he said. “I thought, rather than fight all these battles, how about we go after corporations and their illegal structure?”

Then one day while driving down the road, he noticed the carpool lane sign: "2 or more persons per vehicle." Frieman, who has a degree in law, knew the sign's language was at odds with how the State of California views personhood. In that moment, an idea was hatched.

Related: California man says he can drive in carpool lane with incorporation papers

Corporate personhood became a hot button issue in 2010, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that corporate and union spending may not be restricted by the government under the First Amendment.

At the heart of the high court ruling was the argument that corporations -- because they are composed of individuals – deserve protection under the First Amendment, which guarantees free speech. 

Which was what Frieman tried to tell the police officer who pulled over his silver Passat at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 2. He had been driving in the southbound carpool lane on Highway 101. He took his incorporation papers from the passenger seat and shook his incorporation papers at the officer.

“It was exciting,” he said of when he was pulled over. “I was hoping the police officer would understand what I was doing, but he was too much of the serious type, which was OK. He’s in enforcement; he’s not in legal interpretation.”

Frieman received a $481 ticket – a small price to pay given that he has gone out driving carpool lanes 25 times in the last decade in the hopes of being pulled over so he could go to court to make his point.

To Frieman's delight, the officer showed up to Monday's traffic hearing. Frieman’s attorney, Ford Greene, cross-examined the officer before presenting his case. Greene, a friend of Frieman’s from the next town over in Marin County, is also politically active. Greene has gotten into trouble with his community for posting opinionated signs outside his house; Frieman describes himself as a social entrepreneur. He sits on the boards of several nonprofits.

To Judge Frank J. Drago, Greene argued that the incorporation papers should count as a passenger. 

But Judge Drago didn't rule on whether the papers could count as a passenger, saying instead that the carpool lanes are about getting people out of their cars and into other cars.

“We hoped the court would take a strict interpretation, but they didn’t,” Frieman said.

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When Jonathan Frieman of San Rafael, Calif., was pulled over for driving alone in the carpool lane, he argued to the officer that, actually, he did have a passenger.

He waved his corporation papers at the officer, he told NBCBayArea.com, saying that corporations are people under California law.

Frieman doesn't actually support this notion. For more than 10 years, Frieman says he had been trying to get pulled over to get ticketed and to take his argument to court -- to challenge a judge to determine that corporations and people are not the same. Mission accomplished in October, when he was slapped with a fine -- a minimum of $481.

Frieman has been frustrated with corporate personhood since before it became a hot button issue in 2010, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that corporate and union spending may not be restricted by the government under the First Amendment.

At the heart of the high court ruling was the argument that corporations -- because they are composed of individuals – deserve protection under the First Amendment, which guarantees free speech. 

Frieman, who faces a traffic court on Monday, plans to tell the judge that this isn’t about carpool lanes; it’s about corporate power.

"I'm just arresting their power and using it for my service to drive in the carpool lane," he told NBC Bay Area's Jean Elle.

University of San Francisco law professor Robert Talbot says Frieman’s argument may not hold up because it steers too far from the intent of carpool lane laws.

"A court might say, ‘Well, it says person, and a corporation is a person, so that'll work for the carpool lane,’” Talbot told NBCBayArea.com. “It’s possible, but I doubt it.”

In an opinion piece posted to the San Rafael Patch site on May 14, 2011, Frieman broke down his argument.

A carpool lane is two or more persons per vehicle, he said. The definition of person in California’s Vehicle Code is “natural person, firm, copartnership, association, limited liability company, or corporation.”

“Just imagine what THAT courtroom scene’ll be like,” he wrote.

He imagined what he might say to the judge: “Your honor, according to the vehicle code definition and legal sources, I did have a ‘person’ in my car. But Officer so-and-so believes I did NOT have another person in my car. If you rule in his favor, you are saying that corporations are not persons. I hope you do rule in his favor. I hope you do overturn 125 years of settled law.”

But before he can make grand proclamations, the officer who ticketed him must show up to court. Otherwise, his ticket may be thrown out. 

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Southern California -- home of the high-speed freeway chase -- was the scene of a different kind of pursuit Friday afternoon: one that reached speeds of zero mph.

Thanks to "some type of tracking device" hidden in a bag of stolen money, authorities were able to locate bank robbers on the northbound 110 Freeway in Los Angeles, halt traffic and conduct a car-to-car search, said Deputy Albert Martinez of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.

"The trackers out there are pretty accurate," said Martinez.

Hundreds of cars were backed up in the Hawthorne area near Manchester Avenue around 1 p.m. local time, as police officers on foot waded through a sea of vehicles.

Also on NBCLosAngeles.com: Family in deadly DUI crash gets Santa visit

Aerial video showed at least two people being taken into custody (pictured below). By 1:20 p.m., the freeway was reopened and traffic was returning to normal levels.

The search was believed to be linked to an armed bank robbery in Moreno Valley, Calif., earlier in the day. At least three masked men robbed the Altura Credit Union at 12125 Day St. in Moreno Valley around 9:20 a.m. local time, police said.

NBC Los Angeles

Iowa State Police

Some of the vehicles involved in a pileup on Interstate 35 in Iowa are seen Thursday. Two people were reported killed in the crash.

After nearly a decade of decline, U.S. highway fatalities appear to be on the upswing again, according to new government data, with the death total climbing faster than at any time since 1975.

The 7.1 percent jump during the first nine months of the year has safety experts scrambling for an explanation, though at least some of the blame may go to the economy, with more Americans driving longer distances as their personal financial situation has improved, post-recession.

“There is a relationship between the economy, gas prices, driving and fatalities,” noted Jonathan Adkins, deputy executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association. “However, the increase can’t be explained solely because of an improving economy and more discretionary driving.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, an estimated 25,580 Americans were killed in motor vehicle crashes during the first nine months of 2012.  That was approximately 1,700 more than died during the same period the year before.

Traffic fatalities fell to their lowest level in more than six decades during 2011, according to a study released by federal regulators earlier this month.  The death toll was a still-significant 32,367, but that was down from 43,510 as recently as 2005, when a variety of factors began a dive in highway fatalities.

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Last year’s tally was not only the lowest overall total since the late 1940s but saw fatalities fall to a record low based on deaths per 100 million miles driven.

According to the NHTSA, motorists did log more miles during the first three quarters of 2012, but the increase of 14.2 billion miles, or 0.6 percent, doesn’t come close to accommodating the overall rise in the death toll. On a miles-driven basis, fatalities rose to 1.16 per 100 million miles compared to 1.09 for the same 9-month period last year, and 1.10 per 100 million miles for all of 2011.

According to GHSA’s Adkins, “Other factors may be at play. For example, 2012 had one of the warmest winters on record. That may have resulted in a longer motorcycle riding season and more pedestrian activity and hence, more fatalities.”

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Safety officials have been lamenting the steady increase in the number of states, such as Michigan, that have recently abandoned helmet laws. While fatalities among those in passenger vehicles has been dropping sharply in recent years, motorcycle deaths have risen markedly. Also up are pedestrian deaths, with the government reporting a 4 percent rise for 2010, the most recent year for which statistics are available.

The increase in traffic during the winter may also have had a disproportionate impact on the overall fatality rate. Significantly, roadway deaths rose 13 percent during the first quarter of 2012, while the increase was a more modest 4.9 percent during the warm third quarter.

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NHTSA officials have been warning that what Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has called an “epidemic” of distracted driving” could reverse recent downward trends. But the agency has not weighed in on whether it is linking such problems as texting while driving with this year’s rise in highway fatalities.

Yet to be seen is whether increased freeway speed limits are implicated.  But despite some concerns as states continue to relax those limits – Texas opening the nation’s fastest roadway, at 85 mph, this autumn.  However, previous years showed little direct linkage, the death toll dropping even as most states had approved steadily higher speeds. 

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• Escaped robber who rappelled 20 stories is caught
• Nabbed: One of US Marshals' 15 most wanted captured in Florida
• Video: Scammers prey on Newtown families

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