It appears that the increase in gas prices may eventually have a good outcome, namely a decrease in the number of deaths caused by car accidents, according to a study presented at a meeting of the American Society of Health Economists in Raleigh-Durham, N.C., last month.

The study founded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and carried by professors Michael Morrisey of the University of Alabama at Birmingham and David Grabowski of Harvard Medical School found that for every 10 percent increase in gas prices, there was a 2.3 percent decline in auto deaths. There was a 6 percent decrease for drivers ages 15 to 17 and a 3.2 percent decrease for those ages 18 to 21.

The researchers believe that the number of deaths will decrease by 1,000 people each month with the gas prices continuing to increase. Currently, there are nearly 40,000 deaths annually caused by automobile crashes.

The researchers looked at fatalities from 1985 to 2006, when gas prices reached about $2.50 a gallon. Recent data revealed by the Department of Transportation show that after years of increased traffic, Americans drove 1.4 billion fewer highway miles in April, the sixth months in a row that driving was slow.

Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Auto Safety, said such findings are not at all a surprise. Increased gas prices forces teenagers stay out of the road because lack of money and also forces people to drive slower to save gasoline. “So, from a societal viewpoint, higher gasoline prices have a great number of benefits, and one of the most important benefits is fewer traffic fatalities,” he said, as quoted by the Associated Press.

The researchers used auto deaths tabulated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.