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California traffic fatalities lowest since 1944

July 21, 2011

The number of California’ traffic fatalities in 2010 was the state’s lowest since 1944, when one-tenth the number of vehicles drove one-sixteenth the number of miles, said Chris Cochran, spokesman for the California Office of Traffic Safety. [Mercury News.com]

California traffic deaths dropped last year for the fifth year in a row, outpacing national trends, state officials said.

Vehicle fatalities fell to 2,715 in 2010, a decline of 11.9 percent from the 3,081 traffic deaths in 2009, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That number represents a total decline of 37.3 percent since 2005, when 4,333 people died in California highway crashes.

Some of the decline is the result of fewer cars on the road as consumers cut back on spending. Crackdowns on drunk driving are also a factor, official say. Alcohol was a factor in about one-third of the traffic fatalities in 2010.


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It was Carmegeddon!


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Well… the obvious thing is the price of gas… a lot less folks on the road.


Look at LOVR on a Sunday… sometimes I don’t see anyone.


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Drunk driving death math:


Prox 1000 DD fatalities in a state of 37 million means a one in thirty seven thousand chance that I will be killed by a drunk driver this year. Probably less, since some of the fatalities include the drunk drivers or their passengers (and I fall into neither of those groups).


That seems like pretty good odds of staying alive.


I mean, what are the odds of getting hit by lightning, or dying of prostate cancer, having a heart attack?


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My interpretation of this is the roads in LA & SF are so clogged that no one can go fast enough to cause as many fatal accidents as years past.


No matter, it’s a good thing.


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Mandatory seat belt laws, safety air bags, traffic engineered roadways and $5.00 a gallon gasoline all add up .


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No cell phones will help with the stats for this year. It never fails that when I see someone on the phone they are driving horrible. They are worse than drunk drivers.


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I don’t think anyone is as bad as a drunk driver. I used to be one till I smartened up. I spent 3 days in jail for going 130 miles an hour and drunk as a skunk at 3 o’clock in the morning. Jail was not a pleasure down in Long Beach. I’m sure it’s not a pleasure anywhere.

Didn’t stop me from drinking I just decided to keep the kids and wife around and quit before it was too late. That was 27 years ago.

Drunk drivers will aim at people just for the hell of it and think they are funny. Then if you’re like I was, a mean aggressive drunk them you’d be looking for a fight. Not good.

If you notice a person driving and talking on the phone and driving like they are drunk take the license number stop and call the police. Be a whistle blower, save a life. Be sure to stop before you call.


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I was 19 when I got the time in the slammer as I like to call it. I didn’t stop drinking for 20 years after that.


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I’m glad that you took care of that problem. At least you made the right decision before you killed yourself or/and others. Long Beach cops used to have a very bad reputation, they used to rough up their clients if they didn’t like them, especially if they were black.


I said that because I recently saw one of those news shows where they were discussing cell phone usage while driving. They said on the show that being on a cell phone is the same if not worse than drunk driving. On this show they did some tests. They said that it’s impossible for the brain to process driving and talking and worse yet texting on the phone while driving. They said that it’s impossible even for the best drivers to focus on both, the nerons just can’t do it. Not saying that drunk driving is better or not that bad, I’ve done both and that the brain blacks out on either the driving or the talking. I remember in my younger days getting sloshed and then driving and I’m ashamed of it. I don’t have a drinking problem, I was just young and stupid. I also used to talk on my cell phone when driving. Sometimes when I turned off the phone I remember thinking,,’man, I don’t remember driving while I was talking’, also remember thinking the same thing once after drinking and driving. A lady almost hit me and another car the other day while she was entering the fwy. She was looking straight ahead while merging on the fwy and she had no idea that she almost him us. I drove up next to her to give her one of my famous dirty looks but she was completely clueless still gazing straight ahead and gabbing.


On this show they said that the police believe that a majority of accident are caused by phone usage but that they can’t prove it yet. They can’t make people show them their phone so they can see if the person was on the phone so they don’t have accurate stats on it.


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At least now they can ticket them if they see them talking. The biggest thing I see is drunks will at times aim at people and think they know what they are doing. One of the many reasons drunks are considered crazy.


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Like a dance two steps forward one step back, cellphones make us safer because drunk drivers / crazy folk get reported instantly via cell phone.


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This is an example of government regulation done properly. While the car companies complained every time a new safety feature was required on an automobile the proof is in the staggering statistics – California’s traffic fatalities in 2010 was the state’s lowest since 1944, when one-tenth the number of vehicles drove one-sixteenth the number of miles. Bravo!


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