Speed kills — and I don’t just mean methamphetamines. Speeding on our roads is linked to more than 36,000 deaths each year in the United States. That’s almost 700 deaths a week — 100 a day.
Jim Cameron
Jim Cameron
If 100 people die in a plane crash, we go nuts, but if they die on our roads, we see it as the cost of doing business. As one blogger put it: “It’s high time to stop sacrificing safety on the altar of speed.”
Most of those 36,000 deaths are pedestrians or bicyclists, but tens of thousands of those deaths involve the motorists in the cars tied to the accidents caused by distracted driving, drinking, drugs or fatigue.
Federal statistics show if you’re hit by a vehicle going 20 mph you have a 90 percent chance of surviving. If the car or truck is going at 40 mph, your survival chances are just 10 percent. Speed kills. So why are we all driving so fast?
Because we have so far to travel and want to save time getting there.
In Connecticut, our homes and our work are far apart because we can’t afford (or don’t chose) to live closer to our jobs. And because many avoid mass transit, preferring the cocoon of our cars.
Sure, seat belts in cars save lives if you wear them, and air bags and other tech are helping us avoid many accidents. But the death toll keeps climbing, especially when cars occupy the same driving space as bikes and pedestrians.
Consider New York City.
In 1990, there were 700 traffic deaths there. But by 2018, that number dropped to 202, thanks to “Vision Zero,” Mayor Bill de Blasio’s ambitious, billion-dollar plan to reduce road deaths to zero by 2024.
More bike lanes, sidewalks and a 25-mph citywide speed limit have made a big difference. But this year saw an uptick in deaths, most of them involving bicyclists riding on city streets lacking bike lanes.
In Connecticut, we have nowhere near the same density of urban traffic fighting for space with folks on two feet or two wheels, but neither do we have sidewalks in many towns. Or bike lanes. But we do have speeders, scofflaws and insufficient enforcement.
When it’s not crawling bumper-to-bumper, try driving 55 mph on the Merritt, I-95 or I-84 and see what happens. As a state trooper once told me as we cruised along at about 75 mph with the flow of traffic, “I look for the driver likely to cause an accident” by weaving or not signaling lane changes. Even those enforcing our laws admit they don’t or can’t keep up with motorists’ need for speed.
When the cops do look for speeders, legal radar detectors and laser jammers help violators from getting caught. Attempts to install red-light cameras in Connecticut have always failed due to a combination of Big Brother paranoia and fears of the safety tech being turned into an unending revenue spigot for towns and cities.
Weather conditions, of course, exacerbate the problem, especially with those driving the tanks we call SUVs who think they are immune to the laws of physics.
Bottom line: Can’t we all just chill out a bit and think of the safety of others, if not ourselves?
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Jim Cameron has been a Darien resident for more than 25 years. He is the founder of the Commuter Action Group, sits on the Merritt Parkway Conservancy board and also serves on the Darien RTM and as program director for Darien TV79. The opinions expressed in this column, republished with permission of Hearst CT Media, are only his own. You can reach him at CommuterActionGroup@gmail.com.