Sounds like somebody did a single-variable analysis of the situation. I'd be very curious to see how they can isolate in full honesty the results to a single factor.
Because it's intentionally constructed in a way that makes it impossible to parse before you read the article... well, at least I got such impression. ;)
"Declines in vehicle emission decreased deaths, study finds" would be much better title IMHO
The associated increased cost of transportation probably caused deaths as well.
I was curious and looked it up. Couldn’t find a great source but this - https://www.wqad.com/article/news/local/drone/8-in-the-air/t... in my five minutes of googling and various anecdotes agreeing that for the most part inflation adjusted average price of cars has never really changed. It’s always been about 20k until the 80s and then bumped up to about 26k.