MAY 6, 2015
UNITED STATES STILL HAS ONE OF THE HIGHEST ROAD ACCIDENT
DEATH AND INJURY RATES IN THE WORLD: 34,000 DIE AND 2.5 MILLION INJURED EACH
YEAR.
Despite the improvements in road safety, the United States
has one of the highest death rates at about 1 person dead per 10,000 people. Unfortunately,
only undeveloped countries have higher death rate.
Since 9/11/2001, we have lost very few people to terrorist
acts. But we lost 500,000 people on the
deadly roads. An additional 5 million
people have been injured. Our spending priorities
are clearly misplaced. Investment in our
road infrastructure is what is needed, as the economic toll from all these
deaths and injuries and property damage has suffocated our economy.
Thus far this year alone, we have lost 12,000 people to road accidents and an
additional 130,000 people have been injured.
Some states, such as Texas and West Virginia (sorry, WV,
despite your tremendous progress in traffic safety, you are still at the top of
the worst-death-rate list) have death rates of nearly 1.5 percent, i.e., fifty
percent more people die compared to the national death rate.
Approximately 34,000 people are getting killed each
year. In the 1950s and 1960s, about 55,000 people used to die on the
roads – so, there has been improvement in the number of dead.
However, the number of injured is rising. Roughly 2.5
million are injured (yes, you read it correctly – 2.5 million injured) per
year. That is, 1 percent (1%) of the population that is eligible to drive
is injured every year.
It is worse than a war zone out there.
So, please be safe and be on the lookout for aggressive drivers, weaving-through-the-traffic
drivers, crazy drivers, reckless drivers, sick drivers, medical-condition
drivers, sleepy drivers, negligent drivers, stupid drivers, careless drivers,
drunk drivers, speeding drivers, drugged drivers, texting drivers,
talking-on-the-phone drivers, looking-at-the-GPS drivers, hurry-hurry drivers,
tailgating drivers, upset drivers, eating-while-driving drivers,
putting-the-lipstick-on-while-driving drivers, elderly drivers, and so on.
As we always say: it is better to arrive late at your
current destination, than to arrive early at your final destination. Slow
down at intersections, let the aggressive drivers go first, it does not worth
it getting you or your family injured or killed.
Drive safely. Learn
from these deadly tragedies and slow down.
IF YOU MUST GO, THEN TAKE IT SLOW.
