Who are the people of Arizona? We are talking about you, motorists, law makers, politicians, police, traffic engineers, driving instructors, school administrators, teens, seniors, bicyclists, motorcyclists, pedestrians, insurance companies, auto makers, health care providers and more do we really care?
Care about what? Care about the driving and traffic safety epidemic in the United States of America and specifically in the state of Arizona? Arizona was ranked in the last survey this year 49th ahead of South Dakota out of 50 states for traffic safety. To some this may seem shocking, alarming, or surprising with all of the chatter about photo radar cameras and DUI, but Arizona has been failing in the area of traffic safety for years.
The three statistics I like to quote are since 2000 Arizona averages 140,000 collisions, 40,000 injuries and 1,000 fatal deaths. In ten (10) years that 10,000 people dead!
For those of you that are only concerned about money this translates into about 3 billion dollars lost revenue annually since 2000! Arizona is losing both its human resources and its economic resources all because of the way it allows its residents and others to travel within its roadways and highways.
Where is the desire and will in Arizona to face this epidemic head on? When is Arizona (Phoenix) going to rise from the ashes and transform itself and the nation into something beautiful? According to the survey automobile crashes is the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 4 and 34 and that in 2008 an estimated $230 billion was lost in property and productivity losses, medical and emergency bills and other related costs due to automobile crashes in the United States.
I say this is no accident, this is a collision!
No comments:
Post a Comment