Posted on 09/09/2010 4:22:43 PM PDT by Red in Blue PA
Besides safer vehicles and an increase in people bucking their seatbelts -- 85% of drivers now use their seatbelts, LaHood said during a press conference -- a weak economy may also have been a factor in the reduction.
During an economic decline, people make fewer trips for entertainment and enjoyment and those trips tend more often to be deadly, LaHood said. Given that, traffic deaths will probably increase as the economy improves, he said, but they are not likely to return to past levels.
(Excerpt) Read more at kpax.com ...
Ahhhh, how they all lied to us about “deaths will increase” and we’ll have “carnage on the freeways” when we killed off that crappy 55mph national speed limit.
Liars, all.
Cars are so much safer now, too.
The price of fuel also tends to cut down on the amount of driving that people do. I, for example, don’t go to the stores as often and I’ll stack the number of errands I have to make onto one trip, if I can.
Just as lowering percentage of blood alcohol was to protect everyone…a bald face lie;
Lowering levels was to make up for the drop in number of arrests, convictions and revenue generation; they needed to increase volume for job and program justification.
This is particularly amazing when one considers the havoc huge rigs create on the interstates.
Excerpt: Around 1966 in a published report entitled "Accidental Death and Disability: The Neglected Disease of Modern Society", (known in EMS trade as the White Paper) medical researchers began to reveal, to their astonishment, that soldiers who were seriously wounded on the battlefields of Vietnam had a better survival rate than those individuals who were seriously injured in motor vehicle accidents on California freeways
Spot on comment and you are exactly right.
Modern vehicles are engineered for an end result of a crash. Not the beginning of one.
Rather than big chrome bumpers, they have energy absorbing materials with integral crush zones and are a marvel of engineering and construction.
I work on cars, both modern and old, as a hobby and there really is no comparison.
Cheers,
knewshound
2009 Malibu vs. 1959 Bel Air (crash test)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joMK1WZjP7g
Bel Air driver dies, Malibu driver has injured knee.
The lack of traffic in Joisey is absolutely stunning.
When the national speed limit was finally gone in 1995/1996, I said very good riddance ! It seems the liberals always want to legislate the quality of life downward. Take a trip, meke it less enjoyable and more frustrating with being forced to drive slow even there is no reason except “for the childrun” ! 55 mph deserved the contempt that it got from people like me.
I remember some legislator in Indiana wanted to ban radar detectors back in the early 1990’s. He was of course a liberal democrat. I wrote to him voicing my objections and his response is that not only we should abide the federal limit but we should agree with it for the common good ! Common good for the insurance executives and state coffers !
> Ahhhh, how they all lied to us about “deaths will increase” and we’ll have “carnage on the freeways” when we killed off that crappy 55mph national speed limit.
> Liars, all.
Interesting site. I also think of Alex Roy ! He drove cross country in something under the previous record in his BMW.
> http://www.32hours7minutes.com/32-hours-7-minutes-official-trailer/
The problem wasn’t the age of the steel ,, they chose a 1958-1964 full size GM because they had the worst frame design ever ,, do an internet search for “GM X FRAME” ,, if that test was with a full size Ford or Chrysler from the same year the test wouldn’t have been so skewed.
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