Here’s some good news from the auto world (a rare occurrence over the past few months), 2008 traffic fatalities are at record lows.
The National Safety Council annual report states that there were 39,800 deaths last year related to motor vehicles in 2008. That’s an 8% drop in the number of fatalities over the previous year. In case you’re wondering, it has nothing to do with people driving less due to increases in gas prices or some other, normal, outside factor. It turns out that the ratio of deaths per vehicle miles driven has also dropped.
According to the National Safety Council there are three factors that contributed to the record low levels. First off, cars and trucks are getting better and better in the safety department, as shown each year by the high safety numbers posted in NHTSA and IIHS crash testing. Also contributing to the record drop are public education and the visible enforcement of safety laws.
There are other upsides to this, in addition to a lower overall death toll. Fewer deaths mean fewer medical expenses and property damage as well as lower loss of wages.
So, good job everybody, and it’s not very frequently that I say that about my fellow drivers … because really, the stuff that I still see on the road makes me shake my head. Actually, I’m surprised the fatality rate hasn’t gone up.
Source: AutoBlog
Now a days traffic has become more in the daily world. It is nice to hear that because of increase of gas traffic has decreased.So it is better to maintain traffic if the gas price is low too.
All the more reason to tax the heck out of gas!
As a newly-reformed driving enthusiast, now that I ride the bus, I am stunned by the frequency with which people do astoundingly dumb things in front of busses: without exaggeration, 80% ++ of the bus rides I take from West Seattle to downtown Seattle there is at leas one idiot in a passenger vehicle who seems to think that the bus is either invisible or obliged by civic and physical laws to stop on a dime to accommodate their foolhardy u-turn, abrupt lane change, jaywalk, etc. etc. More often than not that short journey will involve multiple near-death experiences, in fact.
If not for the the mad driving skills of the Metro bus drivers (and what must be an incredible braking/mechanical system on their busses) here in Seattle I guarantee you that these traffic death numbers would be a little less cheery. My guess is that the same is true elsewhere.
Sadly, I have witnessed several heroic bus-driving maneuvers in which, immediately after preventing carnage on the West Seattle bridge, the poor driver immediately gets screamed at by the passengers who have been thrown around midst the live-saving move. Poor bus drivers can’t win for losing.
Thank you nimble bus drivers for thwarting the forces of Social Dawrinism!
Honesty: why are busses apparently invisible to so many of us?
Keep up the good work, Tony!