Central Machine Works
Enforce Traffic Laws, Reduce Deaths
RECEIVED Mon., June 19, 2006
Dear Editor,
Bruce Todd is a visionary for American cycling – bicycle helmets should be made mandatory before we do anything else to reduce road injuries and deaths ["Shall We Bike?," News May 26]. Just kidding. If we really wanted to reduce head injuries for cyclists, motor vehicle drivers, and pedestrians alike, we should avoid passing new laws and instead actively enforce existing traffic laws, specifically those relating to alcohol and driving.
I would wager, based on my own observations, that a large percentage of people driving to and from downtown on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights are intoxicated and do so with little risk of arrest. This is a situation that can only occur if:
a) The city and police department are balancing enforcement against loss of downtown income and,
b) We as individuals allow drinking and driving to be socially acceptable in our own peer groups.
OK, end of sermon ... the facts speak for themselves: "Texas has the nation’s worst problem with drunk driving in terms of total deaths and injuries. Texas had the highest rate of alcohol involvement in traffic deaths of any populous state, with 50% of traffic fatalities involving alcohol, compared to 37% in California, and 40% in Florida. Only Alaska and Rhode Island have higher rates of fatalities involving alcohol than Texas."
(Source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, National Center for Statistics and Analysis, Research and Development, Traffic Safety Facts 2000 on Alcohol, p. 7; www.window.state.tx.us/etexas2003/gg25.html)
I found this information at the State of Texas Web site via a Google search. Politicians either don't read their own reports or simply prefer to avoid the real road-injury issues.
Now look a little further and it gets worse. The No. 1 killer of Americans ages 3 to 33 is not guns, or violent crime, or cigarettes, or drugs, or terrorism, or any other issue we are fighting a "war" against, but motor vehicle crashes, according the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Bruce Todd is a visionary for American cycling – bicycle helmets should be made mandatory before we do anything else to reduce road injuries and deaths ["Shall We Bike?," News May 26]. Just kidding. If we really wanted to reduce head injuries for cyclists, motor vehicle drivers, and pedestrians alike, we should avoid passing new laws and instead actively enforce existing traffic laws, specifically those relating to alcohol and driving.
I would wager, based on my own observations, that a large percentage of people driving to and from downtown on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights are intoxicated and do so with little risk of arrest. This is a situation that can only occur if:
a) The city and police department are balancing enforcement against loss of downtown income and,
b) We as individuals allow drinking and driving to be socially acceptable in our own peer groups.
OK, end of sermon ... the facts speak for themselves: "Texas has the nation’s worst problem with drunk driving in terms of total deaths and injuries. Texas had the highest rate of alcohol involvement in traffic deaths of any populous state, with 50% of traffic fatalities involving alcohol, compared to 37% in California, and 40% in Florida. Only Alaska and Rhode Island have higher rates of fatalities involving alcohol than Texas."
(Source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, National Center for Statistics and Analysis, Research and Development, Traffic Safety Facts 2000 on Alcohol, p. 7; www.window.state.tx.us/etexas2003/gg25.html)
I found this information at the State of Texas Web site via a Google search. Politicians either don't read their own reports or simply prefer to avoid the real road-injury issues.
Now look a little further and it gets worse. The No. 1 killer of Americans ages 3 to 33 is not guns, or violent crime, or cigarettes, or drugs, or terrorism, or any other issue we are fighting a "war" against, but motor vehicle crashes, according the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Simon Evans