I was checking Canadian weather info from the BBC's weather website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/weather/ And clicked on their Foreign Travel info page about Canada, then I figured I'd check the Canadian and US stats: Canada: http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and...dvice-by-country/north-central-america/canada USA: http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and...y-country/north-central-america/united-states You can check any country's travel info, and Road Deaths are usually included. Which took me to the UK DOT/DFT stats page. Those guys have something around 80 million people, plus heavy tourism, and keep dropping their Road Death and Injury stats lower than Canada's!!! We only have 33 million people! http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistic...ns/accidents/casualtiesmr/rcgbmainresults2008 Somehow their centralized system works better than our Canadian hodgepodge.
California will have a good share this week. Our second storm is about over today. Third tomorrow. The highway accidents typically increase 150% with a sprinkle.
TORNADO warnings in So Cal........LOL Was looking on the radar - HUGE amount of heavy rain just northwest of Barstow......
Maybe I'm just too much of a literalist, but I hate the term traffic "accident". All too often, there was nothing accidental. Someone did something really stupid and caused a "collision".
My dad used to say, "there goes an accident looking for a place to happen." I heard another definition that Accidents are really conflicts between two or more egos. They all want to be 'there' first, whereever 'there' is. I'd sure like to know how the UK can get their roadkill down, since 1998, from 4.3 deaths per 100,000, to 4.1 in 2008, despite having more cars on the road, meanwhile we're at 7.3 per 100,000, with about 20,000 times more land! And they want to reduce that number!!! When have you heard of such a National strategy on this side of the pond? Anyone of working age, generates about $2 million in income over their working life (1999 income levels) and has an economic impact on 8 other jobs. If you take the US roadkill number in 2008, from that link above, of about 323,000, which was 12.3 deaths per 100,000, and tame it down to 6 per 100,000, you wouldn't need... more immigration, more federal stimulus debt, etc. and there'd be more old wagons left for us. As kids, on a long trip, we tried to stay awake by counting the cars passing in the opposite lane (late 50's to mid-60's). Sometimes, over 300 miles, we'd only count 20 cars, trucks or tractors. Even today, some main highways have low traffic counts, and somebody figures out how to hit the other vehicle. You have to work at finding a target here!
I'll hazard a guess, Norm. In the UK, the small decline in deaths could probably be attributed to safer cars. Older vehicles without safety features weaned out of the auto population, replaced by newer vehicles. That trend would eventually level out over time, though. The higher numbers per 100k in your country may be attributed to the lack of vehicle numbers. Less vehicles = more space between vehicles on the road = more speed = higher average collision speeds?
I am not really sure about the reasons. Holland is one of the low ones as well, with 5.1 death/100.000. Add that up by the population density of 400/km2 (uk: 250, can: 3.4, VS: 32), I think we are pretty save. Cars do a lot in these figures, I guess, as most deadly accident happen between car and (motor)bike or pedestriants nowadays. The big decrease in numbers is because of less deaths in accidents between cars, as a result of car safety. That the speed of collisions is high because there are less people I don't quite believe. The speed in Germany is pretty high; unlimited!!!!, but doesn't cause more accidents.
Our murders came out today, about 1/2 of road deaths, around 1,200 vs. 2,431 road deaths vs. 8,000 hospital error deaths. pretty sad. I sent our PWBs an email. Top to local.
IMHO many road deaths are nothing less than homicide. Very distressing to see some idiot blasting down the road, in and out of cars without a care for themselves or anyone else on the road. I actually think older cars are in fewer accidents. The owners tend to drive them more carefully and the older the car the more likely it is being driven with more caution. Interesting stats to look at. Sad to see how many people die due to car accidents. What is really sad is when the weather is brutal and someone is killed and the very next day the sun is shining, the road is fine, and if that person had waited a day to travel they'd still be around. Too often we let other pressures get in the way of doing the right thing. Good thread SN
Barry and KK, if you look at the British stats, they call injuries as casualties as well. Those are huge numbers as well. Yesterday, there was a news item about hospital health care workers approaching Burnout limits. Too many sickdays, etc. and the blog went on about how well they're paid, and their 37.5 hour work weeks, etc. And why there aren't enough nurses and doctors, etc., etc. Total Blind-sidedness. Its like the War on Drugs - nobody focusses on why the demand for Drugs is out of control! EDIT: Here's that article - We have a Public Healthcare system, modified somewhat in each Province: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life...-close-to-burnout-study-finds/article1436101/ When I was young and dumb, the Province used to send a mailer to every home, about safety at home and at work. The newspapers used to get full-page ads or tearouts by the health authourities, and there was never a complaint about waiting in the ER for 7 or 12 hours. We've had 2 deaths waiting in the ER waiting room, sent by another hospital this past year, and we're a small city! They keep building and adding on, and screwing up. All we need to do is push the sources of health information (Food Safety, Water Quality, Product Safety, and Safety at Home), and cut these high medical system costs to shreds. When we were at 18 million people in the mid-60's, people didn't die waiting for a nurse in the ER waiting rooms, heck the ER didn't have a waiting room. In and Out! Today, in safe, clean Canada, we have 8,000 deaths caused by Hospital errors, compared to 1,200 or 1,300 murders or 2,431 road deaths. Seems to me that the Provinces need to ramp up a PR program about Safety at Home/School/Work/Hobbies/Beaches again, and the other agencies need to do their jobs, Food and Drug, Water Quality and self-protection from bad water, Air safety inspections... and cut the sources down that send us to hospital in the first place. They don't need to reinvent it even. They just have to dig through their own archives and get Pixar to make morning cartoons.
