NEW YORK — Health officials say more than 50,000 Americans died from drug overdoses last year, the most ever.

The disastrous tally has been pushed to new heights by soaring abuse of heroin and prescription painkillers, a class of drugs known as opioids. The new numbers were part of the annual tally of deaths and death rates released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Overall, overdose deaths rose 11 per cent last year, to 52,404. By comparison, the number of people who died in car crashes was 37,757.

Heroin deaths rose 23 per cent, to 12,989. Deaths from synthetic opioids, including illicit fentanyl, rose 73 per cent to 9,580. And prescription painkillers killed 17,536, an increase of 4 per cent.

Mike Stobbe, The Associated Press