>No comment needed. We believe that we
are the world’s leading nation, but we fall behind in all sorts
of things that really matter. As the article says, “..last year
in the United States, 42,815 people died in traffic accidents..”
A lot more Americans die in car crashes than in firefights in
Iraq. And the American dead in the auto accidents are mostly
“civilians.”
>From The New York Times November 27, 2003
Once World Leader in Traffic Safety, U.S. Drops to No. 9
By DANNY HAKIM
Published: November 27, 2003
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United States, long the safest place in the world to drive and still
much better than average among industrialized nations, is being
surpassed by other countries.
Even though the nation has steadily lowered its traffic death rates,
its ranking has fallen from first to ninth over the last 30 years,
according to a review of global fatality rates adjusted for distances
traveled. If the United States had kept pace with Australia and Canada,
about 2,000 fewer Americans would die because of traffic accidents
every year; if it had the same fatality rate as England, it would save
8,500 lives a year.
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Many safety experts cite several reasons the United States has fallen
in the rankings, despite having vehicles equipped with safety
technology that is at least as advanced as, if not more than, any other
nation. They include lower seat-belt use than other nations; a rise in
speeding and drunken driving; a big increase in deaths among
motorcyclists, many of whom do not wear helmets; and the proliferation
of large sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks, which are more
dangerous to occupants of other vehicles in accidents and roll over
more frequently.
“Our fatality rates are lowering, but not to the degree they have
lowered in other regions of the world,” said William T. Hollowell,
director of the Office of Applied Vehicle Safety Research at the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Traffic deaths and injuries are growing as a global health issue. The
World Health Organization, preparing a report on the issue, says
traffic accidents will become the world’s third-leading cause of death
and disability by 2020, up from ninth today — a toll particularly
costly because victims are so often young adults.
Indeed, automobile accidents will be the main subject of World Health
Day next April, supplanting diseases like H.I.V./AIDS and malaria.
…Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta has laid out an ambitious
target of reducing the nation’s traffic death rate to 1 death per 100
million miles traveled from 1.5 deaths by 2008. That would translate
into roughly 12,000 fewer deaths per year, given projections for
increased road use. Last year in the United States, 42,815 people died
in traffic accidents, the most since 1990.
