Road Deaths Increase By 13.5% In 2012

By Semperpapa

A new report has been released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that tells us the number of vehicle fatalities in the first three months of 2012 has reached 7,630 an increase of 13.5% compared to the same period of 2011.

Of course the NHTSA, which is a government agency after all, is trying to spin this grim statistic in favor of Obama, stating that the increase, while regrettable, is not a surprise considering that the death toll on our roads has been declining steadily for some time.

The justification for the increase is placed by government officials in the economic recovery that has placed more people on the road and the mild winter experienced at the beginning of the year.
But of course! Obama economic recovery and global warming...that's right!

I see the situation in a much different way.
I travel the freeways of Southern California at least 500 miles every week and I have noticed not much of a change in the volume of traffic on the roads. Our freeways are pretty much a mess every day, rain or shine.
But what I have noticed is an increase of vehicular debris sitting on the roadway. Actual large pieces of cars littering the side of the road and testimony to some small, recent fender bender.

The real problem is that the cars we increasingly see on our roads are made out of plastic. A minor collision with these vehicles results in the cars to be completely smashed and large portions of them to make up the new roadside landscape.

I find it amusing riding my motorcycle to pull up next to, for example, a Smart car and realize that my bike is 1 1/2 times longer, and I really pity the fool driving that contraption should he or she ever hit or be hit by another vehicle.
The modern cars, designed on the basis of weight saving to increase gas mileage and conform to CAFE standards, are literal death traps. There still are large 18-wheeler truck on our highways and a collision with one of these cars has only one result.

Interestingly, one of the many things I have noticed on the road is that many people, who thanks to the disastrous economic conditions we find ourselves in, have resorted to place back on the road some of their old cars from the 1980s and 1990s. So many of us cannot afford to purchase a new vehicle, so we hold on to our old ones longer and the cars of those decades can also bring a lot of pain to the little cardboard boxes roaming around the roads these days.

Small cars kill people and they should be banned. If every person on the highway drove full size SUVs and trucks, many lives would be spared.

Just my thoughts!