It’s a positive trend for a negative topic. Highway deaths are at a record low in Pennsylvania.

PennDOT officials announced Monday that there were 1,188 traffic deaths in 2016. That’s down 12 fatalities from 2015, and it’s the lowest level since records first started being kept in 1928.

While the number of highway deaths dropped in many types of crashes, there were significant decreases noted in fatal crashes in which vehicles ran off the road, hit a fixed object or which involved alcohol.

Of the total fatalities, 518 involved vehicles running off the road. That’s down from 580 in 2015. Crashes involving hitting a fixed object also decreased, from 459 in 2015 to 401 last year. Deaths attributed to drinking-driver-related crashes declined to 263, down from 306 in 2015.

These declines didn’t happen by accident. Over the past five years, PennDOT has invested more than $376 million in Federal Highway Safety Improvement Program funds on 434 safety projects and another $50 million in low-cost safety improvements at 4,000 locations. Low-cost safety countermeasures include centerline and edge-line rumble strips, signs and pavement markings.

PennDOT also spends about $20 million a year in federal grants for safety education and enforcement.

That’s a lot of money, time and effort invested in a state’s commitment to safe highways, with the apparent result of a dozen lives saved.

The big question is this: With that much invested, why didn’t the numbers drop even more than they did? It’s difficult not to attribute some of the lives saved to the fact that cars today are much safer than models of even a few years ago.

Perhaps we should adopt a broader point of view. We should take pride that we live in a state that is clearly committed to safe driving. We should insist that motorists follow the laws and avoid distractions — in particular cell phones — while driving.

It’s hard to celebrate a decline of 12 deaths when there are 1,188 deaths still occurring. All of us could — and should — be doing more to reduce that number even more in years to come.