Number ONE cause of fatal sccidents

Number ONE cause of fatal accidents a surprise to many safety proponents.
“Speed kills… “Slow down and live.” We’ve all heard the safety slogans. However, one of the most recent highway safety studies, commissioned by the Pacific Institute of Research and Evaluation, (PIRE), shows the leading cause of fatal crashes in the United States to be far more deadly than excessive speed, drunk driving or cell phone use, although these may share culpability in some events.
An overwhelming majority of fifty-six percent of all fatal accidents and one third of all injury accidents can be DIRECTLY attributable to FAULTY ROAD CONDITIONS! Those of us with years of experience investigating accidents, analyzing statistics and conducting studies, are certainly not surprised by this salient fact. Of the 37,261 people killed on our highways last year, 20,867 of them lost their lives due to BAD ROADS.
This equates to one death every twenty-five minutes, as… “Inadequate roadway infrastructure is responsible for the majority of fatalities.” The annual cost of fatal accidents alone is $217 billion. This is more than THREE AND A HALF TIMES the $59 billion spent by state and federal governments combined on roadway improvements, according to the Federal Highway Administration. Legislators need to focus fiscal priorities on the fatal flaws in our roadways to make safety more cost effective.
The most dangerous faults are inadequate shoulders, guard rails, and obstacles near traffic lanes with woefully poor directional signage. Improvements needed are wider shoulders, more adequate guard rails, break-away power poles and lighting standards, rumble-strips along pavement edges and legible signage for quick, clear communication so drivers have minimal eye deviation from the road.
Most fatalities occur on rural roads where speeds tend to be higher and alcohol is more likely to be involved. Rural roads generally have less frequent maintenance, seat belts are less likely to be worn, and emergency assistance crews require longer to reach remote accident scenes.
The cost of other causes where roads are not a factor is: $130 billion for drunk driving, $97 billion for excessive speed, and $60 billion for failure to wear seatbelts. Medical cost alone is $20 billion, and property damage amounts to $52 billion, with business and industrial productivity loss set at $68 billion, and we, the taxpayers are stuck for about $12 billion.
The principal research scientist and author of the study was Ted R. Miller, PhD in Regional Science. Incredibly, 85% of all the costs, or $439 billion, could be saved by the highway system proposal described in the last TBJ issue Drivewise.