Washington: As many as 35,092 persons were killed in car crashes in the US in 2015, with a rise up to 7.2 per cent from the previous year, authorities said.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) annual report on Monday, the sharp rise broke a recent trend of fewer traffic fatalities witnessed per year in the US, the Xinhua news agency reported.

‘A total of 35,092 people died on our highways in motor vehicle traffic crashes in 2015,’ the NHTSA said, calling on tech firms, educational bodies and the private sector to use the data to analyze how to reduce the risk of fatal crashes on roads.

‘The journey toward zero deaths on our roads will be a long one, but data will provide the guiding lights to take us there,’ it said.

Distracted-drowsy driving and increased cellphone use on the wheel were all thought to have played a role in the increase of car accidents.

US motorists drove record-breaking 2.53 trillion km, equal to 250 roundtrips from Earth to Pluto, in the first half of 2016, according to the data from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) issued last week.

The milage went up to 3.3 per cent from the same period in 2015 when drivers logged the current record of 2.46 trillion km, FHWA data found.