Road injuries are killing young people, and it's hardly slowing down:
Using the latest data from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2019 Study, the researchers analysed deaths and Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) from transport and unintentional injuries in adolescents across 204 countries in the past three decades. They found that despite transport injury death rates falling by a third since 1990, the number of deaths attributed to road fatalities for adolescents still increased in some countries.
"We've seen a high increase in the absolute number of injury-related deaths and DALYs, specifically in low and low-middle income countries. It indicates neglect for a growing population at risk of injury," says lead author Dr Amy Peden, research fellow with the School of Population Health at UNSW Medicine & Health.
According to the research, reductions in transport injury and death rates in high-income countries have slowed in the most recent decade. They dropped just 1.7 per cent a year between 2010 and 2019 compared to the fall of 2.4 per cent a year between 1990 and 2010.
[...] "In high-income countries like Australia, there's been a real decline in progress. In the past 10 years, we've seen reductions in rates of road transport injury essentially stall, showing a lack of attention to the issue," Dr Peden says.
[...] Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to injury risk due to increasing independence and risk-taking tendencies. However, there has been little research to date that has examined injury patterns in this vulnerable age group.
Journal Reference:
The Lancet Adolescent transport and unintentional injuries: a systematic analysis using the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019,
(DOI: 10.1016/S2468-2667(22)00134-7)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Monday July 04 2022, @04:46AM (29 children)
TFA claims people have stopped caring about road accidents, but I think it's missing one important factor: there are more and more cars on the road, as well as more and more pedestrians, simply because there are more and more people on the planet crowding the same areas more and more.
Not to use pointless anecdotes that prove nothing, but when I grew up, there were "only" 4 billion humans on Earth, the cars were a lot less safe than they are today, people were less careful on the road, yet the rate of accidents wasn't orders of magnitude higher than what we have today, which it would be if you just went by the massive improvement in safety and prevention since then. I'm old enough to feel the increase in population density, and I distinctly remember the roads being a lot less packed than they are today when I was a kid. Surely that must play a role in the stalling of the reduction in road injuries.
(Score: 5, Funny) by inertnet on Monday July 04 2022, @06:45AM (11 children)
We didn't have smartphones either, we paid attention in traffic.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Opportunist on Monday July 04 2022, @08:32AM (8 children)
The average human also was smart enough to not do stupid things, because those that did got weeded out early in the life cycle. Since we basically child proofed the world, these idiots now manage to grow up and even breed.
I say we remove the warning labels from various items and let nature take its course.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by crafoo on Monday July 04 2022, @01:34PM (7 children)
Cool it with the racist, anti-immigration diatribes, boomer.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Opportunist on Monday July 04 2022, @01:43PM (6 children)
Anti-immigration? Racist? Dude, if I was xenophobic and racist I wouldn't want the labels removed because, ya know, "these (insert very bad words for POC and foreigners here) can't read anyway".
No, this is for the dimwit, white, middle-class assholes who think they know it all but fail basic physics and lack rational thinking. You know, the ones that think matches are great to look for gas leaks and shaving their crotch while driving is a swell idea.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by sgleysti on Monday July 04 2022, @04:57PM (5 children)
Oh hell no. Wayyyy too easy to nick yourself doing it while driving. I mean, what if you go over a bump? The crotch is a sensitive area.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Monday July 04 2022, @07:06PM (4 children)
You don't say... but yes, that shit happened.
(Score: 2) by sgleysti on Tuesday July 05 2022, @03:23AM (3 children)
I was trying to be funny in that, clearly (at least to me), the greater danger is possibly crashing the car. Although, to your original point, this is just an all around bad idea.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Tuesday July 05 2022, @04:49AM (2 children)
Oh don't you worry, her husband was reaching over from the passenger seat to take the wheel.
In case you're interested in the report, read it yourself [go.com]. And yes. Of course it's Florida.
(Score: 2) by sgleysti on Tuesday July 05 2022, @06:04AM
oh god... from the officer who pulled them over,
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 06 2022, @05:13PM
There were claims that it's because Florida publicizes weird incidents more (arrests etc) BUT it's hard to believe with this and many other incidents e.g.
https://nypost.com/2017/12/26/man-arrested-for-punching-atm-that-gave-him-too-much-money/ [nypost.com]
I'm pretty certain nobody in my country will damage an ATM that gave too much money.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Monday July 04 2022, @03:42PM (1 child)
I'm pretty sure that studying the map while driving was no less distracting than using your smartphone.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by inertnet on Monday July 04 2022, @09:22PM
Funny thing, in those days there were lots of places where you could stop to study a map. Today it's made almost impossible to stop by the roadside anywhere.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Monday July 04 2022, @08:30AM (5 children)
So, road accidents serve the purpose that predator animals served in the past, I get it.
Ain't nature wonderful, when you remove one part, it will invent a new one to take its place.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday July 04 2022, @01:59PM (4 children)
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Monday July 04 2022, @02:12PM (3 children)
But we don't want that. We want freedom! Total freedom! Not the pesky responsibility that comes along with it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 04 2022, @05:20PM
Far too many absolute statements in these discussions. It's not about all or nothing, but where to draw the line.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday July 04 2022, @10:37PM (1 child)
Developed world governments have actually done a fair job of providing freedom from consequences/responsibility for corporations. How well is that working out?
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Tuesday July 05 2022, @04:42AM
We've also had that for a long time for actual people. Be as stupid as you like, medical services will patch you up again. No need to prepare or prevent diseases, we can cure you.
Until we couldn't.
(Score: 5, Funny) by driverless on Monday July 04 2022, @10:51AM (2 children)
Yeah, but back then we didn't have vaccines, which are the real cause of the deaths. Here's the proof: In this country, 95% of people who "die on the road" are vaxxed, therefore vaccination causes road deaths. QED.
(For the humor-impaired, this is satire of anti-vaxxers).
(Score: 3, Funny) by maxwell demon on Monday July 04 2022, @03:46PM (1 child)
That reminds me of the observation that most drivers in traffic accidents are not drunken. Therefore non-drunken driving is more dangerous than drunken driving.
Anyway, the most dangerous place in the world in the bed. Proof: The majority of deaths occur while in bed.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 04 2022, @05:24PM
A lot of people die in hospitals, so avoid them at all cost.
(that was more sarcasm for you who don't grasp sarcasm)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bradley13 on Monday July 04 2022, @03:35PM (4 children)
This. TFA mixes a lot of stuff, and doesn't included much in the way of actual numbers. Sometimes, they seem to be talking about proportional traffic deaths (proportional to what? All accidents? Population?). Other times, they specifically talk about absolute numbers, which is utterly meaningless: if you have more cars and a higher population, then a higher absolute numbers can still be an improvement.
Frankly, it looks like a typical "publish or perish" article: desperately trolling for any sort of publishable result.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 04 2022, @05:50PM (3 children)
^this! Was hesitating to say the same. TFA is a lot of convoluted word soup, using pop-common language and phrases that sound sophisticated but tell you nothing.
The only facts I could glean were where they recommended lowering speed limits, acceptable alcohol levels, and a few others. No information regarding the injuries and deaths- what age range, where are the injuries happening, what were the kids doing- riding bikes? Skateboarding? 4-wheeling? Walking? Playing sports in the street? or ???
Watch some of the many crash videos, esp. pedestrian ones, and you get an idea of what's going on, but I have no idea why it's happening. More and more there's been a shift to placing the burden of safety on the car and truck drivers. How about we each are responsible for our own safety? How about laws of physics? You watch the referenced videos and time and again you see people walking out in front of moving traffic. Laws of physics don't apply I guess. Even if a car could stop instantly, who's to say the driver is paying attention? Why take that risk?
In my state bicycles are allowed on roads. I'm okay with that. But, our moron state congress said that cars are allowed to pass, but must stay at least 4 feet (1.22 meters) from bikes. WTF? So if the bicyclist is in the very middle of the lane, I have to take a huge risk crossing fully into the oncoming lane to safely pass? Oh, no, I have to drive 20 MPH in a 45 zone for possibly miles. Well, someone isn't dealing with reality. There are people who won't wait, will take risks, and guess who is most vulnerable?
Are there no rules or restrictions of the bicyclist? I guess congress gave up on that because in my observation, bicyclists do not obey any traffic laws at all.
My area is suburbs, very hilly, narrow 2-lane roads, generally no shoulder, no bike lanes, no sidewalks, no escape route.
For the record I have several nice bikes and ride on trails, never on roads (for more than a few feet if there's no other way).
Lowering speed limits is the typical punish everyone approach. Newsflash: speeders are going to speed, no matter the posted speed limit.
Lowering blood-alcohol limits: by all means, but also do not let those people drive ever again, or at least not for a long time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 04 2022, @05:56PM
Sorry- forgot the conclusion: teach kids better personal safety!! Do not assume that driver can even see you, let alone thinks they can stop in time.
BTW, sorry if you're a fan, but headlights have been getting insanely overly bright for more than 20 years. I don't get it. I'm often completely blinded by oncoming headlights. Blinded. Not just annoyed, but I can not see anything. If there's a kid about to jump out in front of me, there's nothing I can do. Maybe they want everyone to drive 1 MPH.
Also: get and use a dashcam!
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday July 04 2022, @09:49PM (1 child)
Don't take it out on the cyclists for that, blame the town planner who was and is ultimately responsible. (We're going through a big bikelanes (mostly on pavements) push presently, and as an ex-cyclist it's immediately obvious that nobody involved in planning has ever been a cyclist or a pedestrian. It's shocking that people this incompetent are in positions of power and responsibility.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 07 2022, @03:36AM
Stateside here, and aforementioned cities and towns are very old, hills, very large old trees, and frequently steep embankments right up against the pavement. You'll have to go back to King George III to lay blame for the lack of civic planning. :-P Teasing aside, it was laid out long before cars or bikes existed.
In newer developments they're required to make wide sidewalks, and sometimes bike lanes. Many major cities are preventing cars parking on streets, turning the parking into bike and bus lanes.
For the record, I was not taking anything out on cyclists. Again, I own several. What I do: if there is no reasonable room to ride a bike safely, which includes keeping up with traffic (35+ mph), I don't ride there. It's not worth it, just not realistic.
"Ex" cyclist?
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday July 04 2022, @05:16PM
I doubt that's the only factor. Some other changes with traffic have been:
- Speed increases. When I was young, speed limits on the highways were no more than 65, and had recently been raised up to there from the national 55 mph speed limit. Nowadays, 70+ as the official limit isn't uncommon, and there are lots of drivers who believe they have a $DEITY-given right to drive over 85 mph on the highways and over 60 mph on secondary roads no matter what the speed limits and traffic conditions dictate.
- Bigger vehicles. A bigger vehicle is harder to maneuver, more likely to roll over, and impacts with more force than a smaller vehicle. And yet there's a clear trend of replacing work that used to be done with sedans or station wagons with either SUVs or pickups. And the pickups have gotten bigger, too, as vehicle companies try to pull from the lucrative "dudes compensating for something" demographic.
The simple physics of crashes are that the bigger the object you hit, and the faster you hit it, the more dangerous it is. More modern vehicle designs with their crumple zones and such can help, but they can't really solve the problem, and they do absolutely nothing when it comes to vehicle impacts with people who aren't in cars such as a kid on a bicycle.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Reziac on Tuesday July 05 2022, @02:57AM (1 child)
A different elephant: legalized marijuana.
Back when I looked into this, I came across a stat from Colorado, post-legalization: auto accidents went up about 30%.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 07 2022, @03:39AM
Yeah, but there's a lot less anxiety about it though. :)
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Snotnose on Monday July 04 2022, @06:22AM (2 children)
So the death rate is going up in places like India, where they make cars out of wood, don't have seat belts, no air bags, and have really shitty roads.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 04 2022, @06:58AM
> where they make cars out of wood
You mean like this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcos_GT [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by driverless on Monday July 04 2022, @10:53AM
This is India man, they make their cars from onion bhaji, not wood. Get your facts straight!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Immerman on Monday July 04 2022, @02:22PM (6 children)
Perhaps rather than a lack of attention to the issue the problem is that we're approaching the limit of what existing precautions can reasonably achieve.
I mean, we could limit all vehicles to a maximum weight of of 500 lbs and a 15mph max speed, and that would reduce deaths dramatically - but would also severely reduce the benefit of having those vehicles in the first place.
And if adolescents face a heightened risk (and presumably present a higher risk for everyone else on the road), perhaps we should simply not let them drive. Make people wait until maybe 25 or so to get their first license - when their brain is fully developed and the risk-taking impulses of youth have begun to dissipate in the face of maturity and dealing real-world consequences of less potentially fatal risks in other aspects of their life, and I bet we'd see deaths fall a lot further. Between public transit and (electric) bikes, there are far less dangerous options available (at least assuming there's decent bike and transit infrastructure available)
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Thexalon on Monday July 04 2022, @05:37PM (4 children)
The main reason 16-year-olds are bad drivers is that they're inexperienced. Starting them at 25 isn't going to solve that problem.
What will address the problem: Decide to treat car crashes the way that much of the world treats plane crashes, investigating what happened and taking steps to change both the vehicles and the environment those vehicles operate in based on what you find out.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday July 05 2022, @03:02AM
In my observation, a delay into adulthood makes matters worse -- the older new driver is likely to be so much more nervous that they get tunnel-visioned and make more dumb mistakes, and it's harder to learn to be physically comfortable with the vehicle so the correct actions are automatic.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday July 06 2022, @02:05AM (2 children)
In the US the civil engineer responsible for the area investigates every serious enough crash and issues recommendations for changing the road in question. Even before the Google was born, they had what you now call street view - a recording of every road - so they could do this often from the office. I used to have a friend and when we went hiking she would email me a picture of the parking spot where to meet. All the upstate NY was covered.
The issue is that governments don't follow those recommendations for obvious reasons.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday July 06 2022, @03:19AM (1 child)
Admittedly anecdotal, but: I had a quite serious head-on collision right at the end of my driveway. There was approximately zero investigation: One driver admitted falling asleep at the wheel, they marked that down as the cause of the accident, got the people into ambulances for treatment, cleaned up the cars, and went on with life. No further evaluation of the situation occurred to the best of my knowledge. If there was a report put together about how to prevent such things in the future, I never saw it, nor was there any public comment of any kind from any public official.
Luckily, nobody died, but there very easily could have been a body count. And I can tell you what I told my local police about what makes the road in question dangerous: It's a 1.3 mile straight-away in an area with basically no traffic enforcement, so there are a substantial number of people who turn onto it and immediately stomp on the gas in an attempt to use it as a drag strip.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 06 2022, @05:20PM
Modify your driveway or similarly legally in a plausible way but also so that the next crashes are more likely to become fatal for the other parties?
It's not as if there's a shortage of humans. Also a lot of these people may vote too. Reducing the number of voters makes your vote worth slightly more.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 04 2022, @09:25PM
As long as the US has a car-centered economy, driving is a necessity for many (except in some large cities).
Why not start teaching driving much earlier? My father had access to a large private paved area with nothing to hit (used during the week for car testing). On the weekends he taught me to drive stick...I soloed at age 5. That was well before the "see what I can do" bravery hormones kicked in (teenage) so I learned all the basic car control skills in a very neutral environment.