Drivers kill people in alarming numbers on American roads. A hard, cold look a motor vehicle accident statistics and what they mean in terms of safety.
There's a little known plague out there, lurking among us 24/7 in every community in the country. It makes its way through cities, towns, rural areas and villages. No where is safe, and no one is immune. It can strike any time, anywhere, and there are usually no warning signs, and it claims over 40,000 American lives annually. Is there a cure? Any treatment? Isn't medical science doing something to fight this killer? And what's the government doing to protect us? Well, not a whole lot. So what is this insidious ailment? The cause of all these unfortunate deaths is no disease, it's automobile accidents. Compared to the number one and two causes of death in the United States (heart disease and cancer, according the Centers for Disease Control), car crashes account for only a small percentage of deaths each year. Yet, at 42,642 fatalities in 2006, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, automobile accidents still land within the top ten, right behind the kidney disease, nephritis, at 43,000. And if you're age 34 or younger, death by motor vehicle is number one!
The difference between accidents and illness is that driving-related deaths are largely preventable. A shocking percentage of vehicular fatalities involve drivers under the influence of alcohol (41% in 2006 according to the Fatalities Analysis Reporting System used by the NHTSA), or drivers who don't appear to comprehend basic physics, or those who just don't care. Drunk driving statistics are readily available from any state's Motor Vehicles Department, as all licensed drivers should be more than aware. Yet, history seems to teach us little, try as it might. There appears to be a prevalent attitude among many drivers that “It won't happen to me.” It's interesting how many “expert” drivers there are out on the roads, whose skills, they believe, qualify them to drive at whatever speed they damn well please, and to ignore petty laws like signaling turns, and lane changes and stopping at stop signs. It's reassuring to know that there are so many “gifted” motorists on the road.
A particularly baffling phenomenon is the self-proclaimed “expert” driver who, upon passing what is clearly a serious, if not fatal, accident will, at the very first opportunity (that is to say, out of range of law enforcement) resume their Grand-Prix-like driving practices.
Just about everyone either has a devastating car accident story of their own, or they know someone who does. Just ask them. The impact on the lives of family and friends of accident victims is, of course, enormous, but the damage doesn't end there. We all pay a price. The Arizona Department of Motor Vehicles reports that the 139,265 reported automobile accidents in that state in 2005, cost Arizona residents 3.4 billion dollars - that's billion. And Arizona comes in slightly below the national average. The societal cost of the 6.1 million reported accidents nation wide annually, as reported by the U.S. Department of Transportation, is estimated at over $230 billion. Wouldn't it be awfully nice to have that money back to spend on other things like, say, road improvement? driver's education? and a host of other much needed services that currently go under funded or unfunded altogether?
The bottom line is that getting a driver's license in the first place should be much tougher. Just about anyone who can read, walk and see can pass the less than stringent licensing criteria most states require. And, what about the driver who kills someone and is found to have multiple driver's license suspensions? Take the case of Gary William Shepherd, who killed a 12 year old Michigan girl while driving intoxicated and on two license suspensions. And there's the case of Darleen Fousse, another twelve-year-old girl who sustained serious brain stem injuries when she was struck in 2002 by a motorist carrying over a dozen license suspensions. Under New York law, that driver could only be charged with leaving the scene of a personal injury accident, according to a
New York Times article on the incident. In 1994 a man killed three people in Howard Beach, Queens in New York City driving with twenty-six suspensions. Possibly the most amazing is the case of Leroy Linen, who Police in New York City named the city's “Top Scofflaw” with six hundred and thirty-three (that's 633) license suspensions. And he was caught driving. Amazingly these are not isolated cases. How is it possible that such people are allowed to get anywhere near a car, much less back behind the wheel after chronically violating license suspensions and demonstrating wanton disregard for traffic laws time and again? Assuming someone will obey the law simply because they've had their license suspended is naive, foolhardy and too often a formula for tragedy.
But there is reason for optimism. Overall, fatal car accidents and accident-related injuries have been going down as a percentage of total vehicle miles traveled (VMT). Much is owed to safer vehicle designs, safer roads, and improved safety legislation such as mandatory seat belt laws and the cell phone crackdown. The improved statistics tell us that there are fewer deaths and injuries due to car accidents, but it doesn't necessarily mean that people are becoming safer drivers, and there is still plenty of room for more improvement. While the total number of vehicle accidents of all kinds nationwide has fortunately been decreasing recently, it has remained remarkably consistent over the past fifteen years at slightly more than six million: 6, 471,000 in 1990 to 6, 181,000 as of 2005, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. The total estimated VMT in the U.S. (1,275,484 [million] in 1990) has increased to 1,951,870 [million] in 2005 - a 153% increase over fifteen years. So things are decidedly going in the right direction. Now the penalties for seriously dangerous driving need to be made even stronger. My prescription would be for drivers who are caught going thirty miles an hour or more over a given speed limit more than once, should simply have their vehicles confiscated by police . . . permanently. And, of course, have their licenses suspended too.
So much misery could be prevented if a certain sector of society, you know who you are, would just grow up, take some responsibility for its actions, and accept that no matter how extraordinary it thinks its driving abilities are, it is a menace on wheels. Truly good drivers are those who respect the highly lethal potential of their vehicles and obey safety laws. Make no mistake, a car or truck is a deadly, dangerous weapon. No degree of motoring expertise gives anyone the right to place others' lives in danger and no act is more arrogant and selfish than intentional unsafe driving. So, let's admit we're not Mario Andretti and lighten up on that pedal, the life you save could your own, or that of your dearest loved ones, or, even more importantly . . . mine.
