" AAA says crash costs pile up "
Every several months, Lydia Brooks calls
police to report the license plate numbers of aggressive drivers.
The New Castle mother of two said that while
she's constantly worried about making it safely to wherever she's going, she
knows many drivers on the road aren't.
"You have to be careful, because most people
are just trying to get where they're going, hurrying to get to work," she said.
"That's what causes accidents."
Those accidents cost New Castle County
residents $570.5 million each year, according to a AAA report released Wednesday
that calls for increased attention to traffic safety.
That's $1,089 per person in property damage,
medical bills, lost income and other costs -- higher than the national average
of $1,051 per person each year. For the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington
metropolitan area, the annual cost is $5.4 billion, or $924 a person.
With numerous studies showing that congestion
continues to worsen, sucking commuters' time and fuel, the new AAA report
concludes traffic crashes cost taxpayers even more -- 2.5 times the national
annual cost of congestion. Crashes cost the nation $164.2 billion a year,
compared with the $67.6 billion annual cost of congestion, according to
Cambridge Systematics Inc., which conducted the study for AAA.
"Motor vehicle crashes are a public health
threat, but we typically don't think of them in those terms,"
said Catherine Rossi, AAA Mid-Atlantic
spokeswoman. "We've become fairly complacent about automobile crashes. We take
for granted as we travel every day that we'll get from one place safely to
another. We don't think about the costs of crashes to people, to society, and to
our roads."
According to a 2007 poll conducted by New
Jersey's Fairleigh Dickinson University, only 44 percent of Delawareans worry
often that they or a loved one might be in a life-threatening crash.
In 2005, there were 64 fatalities and 5,322
crash-related injuries in New Castle County, the only Delaware county included
in AAA's study, Rossi said. Statewide, there were 133 fatalities that year.
To place a dollar figure on crashes,
researchers factored in 11 components, including property damage, lost earnings,
medical costs, emergency services, travel delay, lost household production,
workplace costs, pain and lost quality of life.
It's been well-documented that congestion is
bad and only getting worse, Rossi said. For example, between 2004 and 2005, the
number of hours wasted by Delaware commuters grew by an hour, the amount of fuel
wasted increased by a gallon, and the congestion cost to commuters jumped by $58
a year, according to the 2007 Urban Mobility Report from the Texas
Transportation Institute.
"We have focused so much on congestion,
perhaps to the point we have ignored crashes and their impact on society," Rossi
said. "We all have to pay for the costs of crashes in some form or fashion and
that should be disturbing."
The Delaware Safety Council long has realized
the costs associated with traffic accidents, and as such offers businesses
defensive-driving courses and one-on-one employee driver evaluations.
Of the 3 million company cars on the nation's
roads, about one in three are involved in an accident each year, said Harry
Roosevelt, the council's executive director. The average cost to an employer of
one employee-involved crash is $16,000, he said.
"Companies are well aware of these costs, but
individuals, they think more in terms of personal costs to them, like the injury
they might receive or damage to their automobile," Roosevelt said. "But there
are a whole lot of other costs motorists don't think about, like not being able
to work for a few days, or increased insurance premiums. We think in terms of
inconvenience, not dollar costs."
Delaware State Police spokesman Cpl. Jeff
Whitmarsh said that while his agency does not track dollar amounts, placing a
figure on how much a crash costs versus how much it costs to sit in traffic
could help reduce the number of accidents.
"We welcome any information the public can
utilize to make better decisions on the road," he said. "We do take our safety
on the roads for granted, and we do become complacent. The attitude is, 'It's
not going to happen to me.' ... Our goal is to help people understand it
absolutely can happen to you, particularly if you're driving aggressively or
driving impaired or running red lights."
Crashes and congestion often go hand in hand,
said Darrel Cole, Delaware Department of Transportation spokesman.
"Safety is our No. 1 priority," he said.
If an intersection has failing grades in a
safety analysis or in congestion, improvements there will get priority, because
congestion often leads to crashes, and vice versa, Cole said.
To reduce the number and severity of
accidents, the AAA report recommends driver-education campaigns, stiffer laws
for drunken driving, graduated driver's licenses, and primary enforcement
seat-belt laws, which allow police to stop drivers who don't buckle up.
Delaware is ahead of many other states, such
as Pennsylvania, Rossi said, because it already has a primary-enforcement
seat-belt law and graduated driver's licenses that limit the number of
passengers a new driver can carry.
Also, thanks to $500,000 in federal funding,
DelDOT is getting ready to embark on a year-long education campaign that will
focus on work-zone safety, speeding and other dangerous driver behaviors through
neighborhoods, and pedestrian safety.
Ron King, of Christiana High School's
driver's-education program, said motorists need to be more aware of laws, and
the consequences of breaking them.
"Many do not realize that they are putting
someone else's life in their hands every time they get behind the wheel of the
car," he said. "Many people look at a driving manual long enough to pass a
driving test and then never pick it up again."
Brooks said she's already started talking to
her children, ages 15 and 14, about driving.
"I tell them to be careful, to watch the
traffic around you," she said. "You can't just drive for yourself. You have to
drive for others, as well."
Source: [ delawareonline ]
Welcome To Personally Yours Registrations - We Like To Help You Build Your Perfect Plate...
<<- Create a Bookmark ->>
Online Discount - Free UK Delivery!You Do Not Need A Vehicle To Buy A Plate
We Can Supply Most Car Registrations On A Government Certificate, Its Easy....
Search Personalised Registration s (Dateless Numbers) - Enter 1, 2 or 3 Letters OR 1, 2 or 3 Numbers below.
Make Your Own Private Plate - Create a Plate Cheap!
Do You Need Some Help? Call our friendly helpful advisors on 08700 111 911 9-5 - Mon-Fri
Visit Our Online Shop - Open 24 x 7 x 365 - buy online for discount!
NEW - Do You Have A Website Make Money Selling Personal Plates
Quick Bargains! - LE07NNE - K155 WED - M155 WEB - K155 CFC
Sales Office Webcam :: Today's Reduced Number Plates
Give Away Number Plate - Investment Opportunity
Number Plate Gift Vouchers :: Private Number Plate Auction
Number Plate Competition :: Number Plate Raffle
Cheap Private Number Plates - Build Your Own Plate, IDEAL GIFTS! Many Price Reductions! We Can Also Supply the Actual Perspex Plates - Buy now & SAVE! Gift Wrapped If You Like...!
Private Registration Plates, Buy Online - If your budget is one hundred pounds or one hundred thousand we promise all customers the 100% backup service you may need. We have been in the cherished numbers industry for nearly 20 years, our experience and reputation is second to none. Give us a call, we can help you buy, sell or create your perfect number plate...
K155 .... and M155 .... Registrations NOW Available
We Have Many Themed Ideas For Any Jobs, Sport, Interests, Hobbies, Family, Cars Or In fact Anything..!
