Be careful out there
Gasoline prices are down – relatively speaking – and the economy is perking up. That’s good news.
But this good news carries a sting in its tail. Since we aren’t spending so much of our paychecks at the pump, more people have taken to the road in recent months and, according to a study by the National Safety Council, this has led to a substantial increase in the number of injuries and fatalities in automobile accidents.
From January through June, about 18,600 people have died as a result of traffic accidents in the United States, the council reported this week, a 14 percent increase from the corresponding period in 2014. Unless there is an unanticipated drop-off, deaths on the road will top 40,000 this year, the most since 2007, the year before the Great Recession started.
Deborah A.P. Hersman, the president of the National Safety Council, remarked that “it’s not just disappointing but heartbreaking to see the numbers trending in the wrong direction.”
Along with more people driving, states have been raising speed limits, which almost inevitably means a 70 mph limit will find many drivers going between 75 mph and 80 mph. A more menacing culprit, perhaps, is the number of drivers who are being distracted by cellphone calls and text messages. The council has found that about a quarter of all crashes now are caused by drivers entranced by their phones.
We have said it before, and we will repeat it: There’s no text message that’s so important that it can’t wait a few minutes until you are off the road and you have your vehicle parked. Talking on the phone may not pose as much of a distraction, but, in an ideal world, drivers should use a hands-free device when they are behind the wheel.
All is not gloom and doom, however. Highways are designed with a greater emphasis on safety, vehicles have all kinds of bells and whistles designed to protect drivers and passengers, and there’s greater awareness about the dangers of drunken driving and the value of safety-belt use. Teenage driving deaths have dropped, and we are doing better overall than we were in the 1960s and 1970s, when traffic deaths routinely topped 50,000.
Nevertheless, the increase in the number of fatalities on our roads should give us all pause. Be careful out there.