New Jersey’s Division of Highway Traffic Safety has announced that today is Put the Brakes on Fatalities Day. Federal Agencies including the Federal Highway Administration, National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration, Federal Motor Carriers Association, The American Association Of State Highway along with other state agencies in Florida, Kansas, Alabama, Arizona, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Montana, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming are part of this cause.
On this day last year, three people were killed on NJ roads. Even more shocking, since January 1, 2011, 464 people have been killed on our highways and streets. That’s just an insane number. I can barely get my head around that many people being killed in ten months. If this was a disease or a tainted food case, we’d be calling in the National Guard. But, we don’t pay any attention to it for some reason. Why is that?
Here’s what the DHTS’ overview about today states:
Drive As Though Your Life Depended On It!
Motor vehicle crashes claim the lives of more than 700 New Jersey residents each year.
Put the Brakes on Fatalities is a national program whose goal is to deliver to the public the major causes of transportation fatalities and their avoidance.
Each year on October 10th, every driver is encouraged to be exceptionally careful so that for at least one day, there will be no fatalities on New Jersey’s roads.
By the Numbers
In 2005, speeding was a contributing factor in 30 percent of all fatal crashes – with 13,113 lives lost in such crashes. The economic cost of speeding-related crashes in the U.S. is estimated to be $40.4 billion per year. (Source: Traffic Safety Facts 2005 Speeding)
Everyone needs to buckle up, but teens have the highest death rate in motor-vehicle crashes of any age group. While risky behaviors and inexperience contribute to this trend, a major reason for the high teen death rate is their failure to use seat belts. Motor-vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for 16-to-20 year-olds in the U.S., and in 2005, 4,899 16-20 year -olds were killed in passenger-vehicles. Nearly two-thirds of those who died weren’t buckled up. (Source: NHTSA FARS)
Drunk driving continues to be a serious problem in the United States. Alcohol was involved in an estimated 446,000 crashes in 2005, killing 16,885 people and injuring an estimated 254,000 others. (Source: NHTSA FARS and NASS-GES)
Safe Driving Tips
- ALWAYS buckle your seat belt!
- Maintain a safe following distance
- Avoid aggressive drivers and driving aggressively
- Always obey traffic signs and signals
Almost every day, we see someone driving carelessly on our roads and we wish we had a camera set up in our car to record them and then call them out somehow. What text message is more important than your life? Come on people. Let’s Put the Brakes on Fatalities!
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