Traffic Deaths, Traffic Injuries: Overlooked News

Traffic deaths. Traffic accidents. Why don't we talk more about traffic deaths and traffic accidents? In all of journalism, dangerous driving is among the most ignored and overlooked stories.

The annual number of United States traffic deaths always falls at between 40,000 and 45,000, year after year after year. This means that each month, the traffic death toll actually exceeds the death toll of 9/11. Think of that: A Sept. 11 tragedy, month after month after month.

My fate in January was to become involved in my first traffic crash, 38 years after receiving my license. But even before this personal experience, it seemed to me that news organizations were missing the boat. The media don't explore traffic death stories because the victims die one, two, three at a time. This isn't considered the same as a big plane crash, even though in the United States there are more than 100 traffic deaths per day, the equivalent of a daily plane crash.

Take a guess: How would you describe the statistical odds that your eventual death will come in a traffic crash? Previously, I would have supposed that it's maybe one in 1,000, something in that range. But some basic research reveals that the odds are far more steep.

How about one in 83?

This isn't one of those wild statistics that we really can't trust. It comes from Reason Magazine, which figures out stuff like this.

The article's main topic is that our odds of being killed by a terrorist are less than our odds of drowning or being killed in a fire, much less being killed in a traffic crash. That's where the one-in-83 gem appears.

One statistic that I couldn't find was, how many among us have been in a crash, period? But almost everyone who heard my recent story had their own account of their own crashes, whether it was last year or 30 years ago. The National Safety Council says that 1 in 7 of us will be injured in a traffic crash, at some point in our lives. Somehow, still, it seems we are more scared of terrorists than we are scared of our fellow and sister motorists.

Like a Bunch of NASCAR Nuts

My encounter was in the early afternoon on Monday, Jan. 11. Yours truly wasn't out on a highway or byway. Rather, the route was a 30 mph city street here in Saginaw, Mich.

There had been light snow since before dawn, not a big squall but enough to cover the streets. As usual, some people were trying to do their usual 40 mph, when they should have been staying at about half that. Dumb motorists who don't know how to slow down in the snow (one in four? one in six?) were fishtailing all over the place. These were mostly the SUVs and the vans, propelled by motorists who somehow perceive that they are immune and protected within their massive enclosures. But there were some regular mid-sized cars that were boogeying as well.

My first thought was: Idiots! My second thought was: It seems that City Hall hasn't salted the streets; is this revenge for voters rejecting a tax increase? My third thought, at 20 mph in the right-hand lane, was: Please just let me make it back home.

Then, within a split second, an oncoming vehicle was skating sideways into my small truck's front end. There was no time to react. So this is what a car crash is like? Whomp!!!!

Now my truck was sideways in a snowbank in front of a gas station. I've gotta be hurt. Well, no, I wasn't. How could this be?

Turns out a local ambulance vehicle, of all things, had been behind me. The ambulance rear-ended me at the same time as the spinning motorist front-ended me. Therefore, the impacts must have neutralized one another. This was sort of like when we see a football runner who is hit simultaneously from both sides, and both tacklers bounce off while the guy keeps running.

The MMR driver was okay. The perpetrating motorist had to go to the hospital but eventually was okay, too.

In forcing my door open and standing at the scene, I looked toward the old St. Luke's Hospital, toward the window where my mother would always point and say, "Michael, that's the room where you were born."

Salt Or No Salt, Why Drive This Way?

Regardless of whether City Hall put salt down that day, the main question is, why do so many among us drive so foolishly? I realize this is not the most manly question for a fellow to pose. But still?

We always hear that we should eat right and exercise and quit smoking and control the drinking, all well and good, but why are we so rarely told that we should drive safely? We hear about drunken driving, which indeed is a bane to society, but apparently that makes stupid sober driving become overlooked. Those fishtailing vehicles on that early Monday afternoon of January 11, sashaying and spinning out, weren't all being operated by drunks. More likely, some of those drivers had consumed too much coffee. Maybe there should be breathalyzer for caffeine, too.

My crash wasn't high-speed, but still, it was so violent! My little old truck ended up folded like an accordion. Memories emerged of a driver's training instructor back in 1971 who told our class that even if you are cruising at a seemingly slow-poke 30 mph, that if you crash headlong into a tree or a concrete abutment, that's the same impact as driving off the top of a six-story building and spiraling downward into the pavement.

A certain scenario occurs virtually every time I'm on the road. A few blocks ahead, the traffic light turns yellow. Old-man me, in the right-hand slow lane, takes my foot off the pedal and starts to coast. After all, this saves gas, correct? Well, there actually will be morons behind me who will pull out, accelerate past me in the left lane, and then brake hard at the light. A few seconds later, old man me will cruise up to the same light, stop softly alongside them, and sort of cast a side glance to see if there truly is a human being behind the wheel. What did they gain, timewise? Why are they so tense, so intensively tense?

In closing, I don't really have any sort of thundering insight to offer. Basically it's, duh, wouldn't it be a good idea to slow down a little, especially when the roads are slick? Duh, don't you see everyone else spinning all over the place? Why such a hurry? One of you is now costing me $230 a month in payments for a replacement vehicle, and you could have cost me my life.

SOURCES

http://reason.com/archives/2006/08/11/dont-be-terrorized

http://www.census.gov/.../motor_vehicle_accidents_and_fatalities.html