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from the 'hit-the-road'-but-don't-take-it-literally dept.
ScienceNews reports on a report from the CDC (informative graph):
U.S. drivers love to hit the road. The problem is doing so safely.
In 2013, 32,894 people in the United States died in motor vehicle crashes. Although down since 2000, the overall death rate - 10.3 per 100,000 people - tops 19 other high-income countries, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported July 8. Belgium is a distant second with 6.5 deaths per 100,000. Researchers reviewed World Health Organization and other data on vehicle crash deaths, seat belt use and alcohol-impaired driving in 2000 and 2013.
Canada had the highest percentage of fatal crashes caused by drunk drivers: 33.6 percent. New Zealand and the United States tied for second at 31 percent. But Canada and 16 other countries outperformed the United States on seat belt use - even though, in 2013, 87 percent of people in the United States reported wearing safety belts while riding in the front seat.
Spain saw the biggest drop - 75 percent - in its crash death rate. That country improved nearly all aspects of road safety, including decreasing alcohol-impaired driving and increasing seat belt use, the researchers say.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 23 2016, @11:28PM
Godwinned in the fourth post, that was quick.
Montana used to have no specific speed limit [hwysafety.com] and the highways were safer when they did, or so says this link I'm posting anonymously.
(Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Sunday July 24 2016, @12:10AM
Godwin's law does not automatically apply to any mention of Germany.
There's more than a few factors in this disparity.
America's highway enforcement is entirely about one thing: Speed. They do not care about bad drivers because pressure groups have made "fast" equal to "bad". Our statistics always use the state-set speed limit to determine "if speed was a factor" in a crash. This is true even in Massachusetts where the speed limit is a laughable 55 MPH, which is universally ignored by everyone except nervous drug runners. When was the last time anyone heard of a turn signal or lane change enforcement program?
America's highways cover more miles (or kilometers) than anywhere else, and many of us prefer to live suburbs in decent homes and large lots than live cramped in a city.
America does not invest in transport the way other places do, so our subway systems and trains do not provide good coverage, requiring park-and-ride stations. I would suggest there is a link between transportation investment and economic growth, but we lack the mandate to use eminent domain to buy the land needed. The one good thing is we have kept railroad rights-of-way for bike paths, where the UK sold off much of it.
America's leftists are uniformly against faster, newer roads, mindlessly repeating the mantra "We have to get cars off the road, man" while smoking skunkweed.
America's rightists are against taxes for even essential things, and lack the mandate to reform the bidding and police detail processes. "Everything costs too much."
America has a history of being pro-Liberty, and that means laws to stop drivers for seatbelt violations are unacceptable to many of us. That is not true in other countries, and especially untrue in places where compliance and conformity are national characteristics.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 24 2016, @12:56AM
The comment about driving fast in Germany made me think of the autobahns and that made me think of the Nazis. Too tenuous?
The biggest pressure group that frets about driving is MADD. They have made "drunk" equal to "bad" and now they're trying to do the same for "tipsy" or "buzzed."
Cops don't enforce turn signals enough but they're pretty thorough when it comes to burned out tail lights.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 24 2016, @01:52AM
The comment about driving fast in Germany made me think of the autobahns and that made me think of the Nazis. Too tenuous?
Way too tenuous. Sorry. A lot of things come to mind about Germany, and that sad period in its history doesn't really influence my views of Germany. Is there something I don't know about autobahns?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 24 2016, @04:14AM
Eh, just that a lot of the construction of them happened when the Nazis were in power. Was trying for a laugh, it may be too soon.
(Score: 3, Touché) by aristarchus on Sunday July 24 2016, @02:01AM
because pressure groups have made "fast" equal to "bad"
"Pressure groups"? What parry tele, are these groups? I would think they are something like "Concerned Motoring Citizens Who do not Want to be Killed by Idiots Incapable of Estimating Potential Risks of Excessive Vehicle Speed, and Teenagers", or CNCWWKIIEPREVST. Possibly linked with the local SJW coven, no doubt?
And Remember, Mr. Libertarian, it was Ronald Reagan that forced the 55mph speed limit on the States, by Executive Order!!! The man was such a tyrant!
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Sunday July 24 2016, @04:36AM
Wikipedia lists 31; the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, the American Traffic Safety Services Association, B.R.A.K.E.S., Impact Teen Drivers, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, and Road Safe America seem to be based in the United States.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Road_safety_organizations [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Sunday July 24 2016, @05:35AM
And these are pressure groups, because they are in favor of less death on American Roads? They have an "opinion" that they could have had differently? My recent exchange with khallow on Climate Change Denierism starts to make more sense. But it is no less wrong.
If you think that your fun trumps the safety of the rest of the public, you are not a libertarian, you are a socialist, trying to maximize your choice and forcing the rest of the driving public to take it down their throats when we have to absorb the cost of your over-estimated competence behind the wheel. There is a website, that is nothing but crashes of $100,000+ cars, proving once again that we should ask, if you are so rich, why can't you drive?
But mostly, actuarials are actual. You may think you are the one that beats the odds, you may think that having a firearm in your dwelling makes you safer. But statistics prove you wrong, dead wrong. So take that opinion, and have it pressure grouped up your nether regions, until you grow a brain.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Sunday July 24 2016, @08:12AM
Having once ventured to answer in GungnirSniper's stead, I suppose I am obliged to continue.
What's good for the insurance industry is good for America.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday July 24 2016, @01:52PM
Not because they favor less death, as you put it, but because they are misguided in their efforts.
Speed doesn't kill. Sudden changes in inertia do kill. If speed killed, Chuck Yeager would be just another forgotten name in a long list of casualties.
The core reason that speed seems to be deadly to Americans is, most Americans refuse to pay attention to their driving. Fiddling with the phone, the stereo, a six course meal, watching a movie, getting head, or just sleeping at the wheel are all factors in many "accidents". We go about licensing drivers all wrong, and we make to many excuses when they do screw up.
Speed is, at worst, a contributing factor in highway deaths.
Motorcyclists have a name for people who think they know how to ride, but don't. Squid. Squids have no bones to speak of, after they've splattered themselves down a half mile of pavement.
(Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Sunday July 24 2016, @06:13AM
Pressure group is a British term for political advocacy groups, like our NRA or NARAL.
The idiotic speed limit was a Nixon thing, not a Reagan one.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Sunday July 24 2016, @08:15AM
You may be thinking of the National Maximum Speed Law, which was a law approved by the U.S. Congress and President Nixon.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9B0CE1DC143CE63BBC4B53DFB766838F669EDE&legacy=true [nytimes.com]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Maximum_Speed_Law [wikipedia.org]
Reagan had signed a 55 mph limit into law in California, when he was governor of that state.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/REFLECTIONS-3053481.php [sfgate.com]
The national 55 mph limit was raised during Reagan's tenure as president, with his approval, to 65 mph. It wasn't by executive order, rather the National Maximum Speed Law was revised.
https://www.newsreview.com/reno/return-to-fast/content?oid=9546174 [newsreview.com]
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Sunday July 24 2016, @08:27AM
It is not so much the law, it is the Federal extortion that Reagan enacted!
From your Wikipedia cite:
On June 1, 1986, Nevada challenged the NMSL by posting a 70 mph (115 km/h) limit on 3 miles (5 km) of Interstate 80. The Nevada statute authorizing this speed limit included language that invalidated itself if the federal government suspended transportation funding. Indeed, the Federal Highway Administration immediately withheld highway funding, which automatically invalidated the statute by its own terms
Reagan's Federal Highway Administration.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Sunday July 24 2016, @09:50AM
The law was enacted by the Congress and President Nixon in 1974. From the beginning it provided that federal funding be withheld from states that didn't have a 55 mph limit. Reagan's Federal Highway Administration, it would appear, was simply enforcing in 1986 what had been the will of Congress and President Nixon in 1974. I suppose Reagan could have ordered the FHA not to enforce the law; do you prefer that sort of government? I didn't find information about the supposed executive order by Reagan "that forced the 55mph speed limit on the States." They're available online at the link below; if you find it let me know. Really he should not have had to issue any such order for the funding to be withheld from Nevada.
http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/executive-orders/reagan.html [archives.gov]
(Score: 1) by ncc74656 on Tuesday July 26 2016, @03:15AM
Unlike the present lawless regime, the FHWA under Reagan was enforcing the laws on the books, flawed as they were. Note that he had no problem signing into law the 65-mph speed limit a couple of years later, a step on the way to the eventual recission of federal speed limits in the mid-'90s.
Would you have preferred that he just ignored the law or used his pen and his phone to weasel out of doing the job he was elected to do? That way lies madness, as we are now seeing.
(Score: 4, Informative) by https on Sunday July 24 2016, @02:29AM
.
Today, if you're not white.
Offended and laughing about it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 24 2016, @05:46AM
Actually, 10 minutes ago.
And I'm not white
(Score: 4, Insightful) by frojack on Sunday July 24 2016, @07:01AM
To all the thing you mention you have to add that the proper measure is NOT "10.3 deaths per 100,000 people" as TFA suggests. The proper measure is "Deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled". (World wide this statistic tends to be collected in deaths per billion KM traveled.)
It doesn't matter how many people you have, or how many cars you have or how many roads you have. All that matters is how many miles are wracked up each year.
For the US there are 1.08 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. Converted to world numbers that comes out to 7.1 deaths per billion Km vehicle miles traveled. The US isn't in the best position when measured this way but we are far from the worst. 55.9 for Brazil. 18.2 for South Korea.
But the big problem is most contraries have no idea of how many miles are traveled per year. They just don't measure it. So they don't know how bad their death toll actual is.
Half of the world’s road traffic deaths occur among motorcyclists. HALF. And motorcyclists are a much higher percentage of vehicles in poorer countries.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by choose another one on Monday July 25 2016, @09:36AM
The _real_ reference behind TFA actually _does_ use deaths per distance traveled, if you look at the right column:
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/65/wr/mm6526e1.htm#T1_down [cdc.gov]
What is most interesting to me is not the absolute numbers, since there are some purely situational / geographical factors that could account for that, it is that the US has shown least improvement (by a long way) over the 13 or so years compared. The US is doing something very different, question is what. It _may_ be bad driving, but it might be other things - the US has a completely different car market and car safety standards to everywhere else (except maybe Canada) for one thing, maybe the US penchant for bigger (well, f***king enormous) cars compared to elsewhere is actually reducing safety.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday July 28 2016, @04:09AM
US safety standards drive the standards for rest of the world. And larger is safer in almost every case.
So it isn't the equipment.
It might be the price of fuel.
But just look at those Vehicle miles traveled (billions) column in the link you posted. No country comes close. Look at Registered vehicles. No country comes close.
So sheer Traffic Density is my guess.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by scruffybeard on Tuesday July 26 2016, @07:10PM
America's highways cover more miles (or kilometers) than anywhere else, and many of us prefer to live suburbs in decent homes and large lots than live cramped in a city.
When I read the article one of my first thoughts was what do these stats look like if we compared deaths per mile driven?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by scruffybeard on Tuesday July 26 2016, @07:22PM
Never mind, I found it at the bottom of the study. Per mile we end up in fifth, behind Spain which had one of the biggest drops in overall deaths. And I would say that an overall drop of 31% isn't all that bad considering just how many accidents we have per year given the population. There is room for improvement, but hardly a bleak picture when you consider the diversity of the country's roads and drivers.