Traffic Deaths, When A Low Number Is A Good Number

This is good news:

“Traffic deaths in the United States declined last year, reaching the lowest level in more than a decade, the government reported Thursday.”

Yes, yes, I know, there could be, and probably are, outside factors that nudged this number down a few points lower than it would have fallen, given the trend line; gas prices are up, so miles driven are down, ergo, the traffic death rate will drop a little further.

But even taking the price of fuel into consideration, what else is causing this?

“Thanks to safer vehicles, aggressive law enforcement and our efforts, countless families were spared the devastating news that a loved one was not coming home,” Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said.

Jeez, that’s stupid, on so many levels that even coming from a politician it make me cringe.

Aggressive law enforcement? Really? Does that count things like traffic cameras? For someone like Mary Peters, it probably does.

And just what the hell does ” … and our efforts” mean?

Personally, I’m putting my money of safer cars, because Americans sure seem to be driving as stupid as ever, and it doesn’t seem like the cops are doing much to help. Just as I was sitting down to write this, I saw a guy blow right through the four-way stop in front of my house and he came that close to drilling a cop car. The cop just looked at him disapprovingly and then waved him through, and that told me more than I needed to know about America’s view towards road safety than anything else..

Source: CNN

Filed Under: Car News