Our View: Drive-safe reminder
Leaders in Washington state have an impossible goal: They want traffic deaths, and disabling injuries from car crashes, to reach zero by the year 2030. The resolution is articulated in the Target Zero Strategic Highway Safety Plan, written in 2000 and recommitted to each year.
More than 600 women, men and children die in car accidents each year in Washington, and thousands more are seriously injured. “People have come to expect that people will die on our highways,” said state Department of Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond.
This expectation that highway deaths are an integral part of living in a car culture is not acceptable to Hammond or her department. And it shouldn’t be acceptable to the rest of us.
The Christmas countdown is on. It’s party time. In the days before ubiquitous cell phones, parents gave their teens some money to call home in case of emergencies.
In that spirit, tuck away the following reminders – along with these statistics from the Target Zero report. The reminders may seem simplistic, but so are many of the items on a pilot’s checklist. Just as those checklists make flying one of the safest modes of travel, so should these reminders make holiday driving days safer.
“ Wear your seat belt. Only 4 percent of Washingtonians drive without seat belts fastened, yet almost half those killed in traffic crashes aren’t wearing their seat belts.
“ Slow down. On average over the last five years, speed was the major factor in 38 percent of fatal crashes.
“ Pay attention. In almost 80 percent of all kinds of accidents, drivers were distracted in the three seconds preceding the crash. Reaching for a moving object, such as a ringing cell phone or a latte slipping out of its cup holder, increases crash risk by a factor of nine.
“ Get aggressive when the party’s drunk tries to drive home. Hard-core drinkers – defined as those with blood-alcohol levels of 0.15 or greater or those who have prior DUI arrests or convictions – cause 27 percent of fatal crashes, even though the hard-core account for 0.8 percent of motorists on the road at any given time.
“ Drive your newly licensed teen to the Christmas party. Drivers with less than one year of driving experience crash at a higher rate than any other age group. Nationally, two out of three teen passenger deaths occur when another teen is driving.
Zero traffic deaths by 2030? Why not? Impossible dreams are built one action at a time. So click it, slow down, hang up the cell phone, grab the keys from a drunk. And tell your teens you’re more than happy to chauffeur them during this party week.