MO traffic fatalities increase 20% - swerving off road is common theme

[cbdo2007]

Traffic fatalities increase nearly 20 percent

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Missouri State Highway Patrol said traffic fatalities are up nearly 20 percent from last year, the first increase after six years of decline.

The state recorded 375 traffic fatalities this year, compared with 313 in 2011.

The patrol said swerving over the center line or off the road is a common theme in most of the accidents.

The highest increases in fatalities were in the southern and central Missouri. Troop D, which includes Springfield and Joplin, reported a 59 percent increase from last year.

http://www.kmbc.com/news/kansas-city/Traffic-fatalities-increase-nearly-20-percent/-/11664182/15275188/-/51l8mc/-/index.html
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Yikes, 20% increase should cause alarm to everyone. Wonder if it is an increase in texting and smartphones??

[seabeyond]

1. Wonder if it is an increase in texting and smartphones??

me, too

[brewens]

6. My girlfriends daughter ran her brothers car off the road while texting.

Fortunately she wasn't hurt and the car wasn't damaged much at all. She's a girl that probably hadn't driven 100 times total. It was also her brothers phone. He had let her borrow it and the car to go see her boyfriend.

She denied texting but guess what? There was a text from her to her boyfriend at just about the time the accident had to have happened. So I asked her, "if you weren't driving when you sent that text, what did you do? Stop and text him from right outside his house before you drove off?" "You don't mention the accident, so it had to have been before you wrecked." She was busted.

It's amazing that one of the most inexperienced drivers in the state would think she could do that. I think these kids that know it all, brag about how THEY can do it perfectly safely and probably give each other tips.

[CrispyQ]

14. I sent this to everyone I know when I first saw it.

[coalition_unwilling]

2. I grew up in the Troop D region. I wonder whether some of it may

be depressed economic times causing a spike in suicides disguised as accidents for insurance purposes. (Policies will not pay if a suicide but will pay if an 'accidental death').

[uponit7771]

3. Most accidents caused by eating food while driving...around 80% ..texting is way safer than eating

...while driving

[brewens]

7. That would depend in what you're eating I suppose. Doritos in a bag

next to you that don't require taking your eyes off the road wouldn't be much of a risk. I actually saw a Fedex driver eating something with a spoon pulling into a little town a few weeks ago. The container was on his dash and he was on a winding two lane highway too. I imagine that is against their company regulations.

[Quantess]

11. I have some serious doubts about that.

No way could texting be safer than eating an apple or something. Even eating spaghetti sounds safer than texting.

[cthulu2016]

12. That is not right (using the usual sense of the words)

Many more people are injured slipping in the shower than are injured jumping motorcycles over rows of buses, but showering is not more dangerous than motorcycle jumping.

It may well be that eating causes more accidents than texting, but that does not mean that texting is safer than eating. It merely means that eating is more common.

Per incident of occurrence, texting is bound to be more dangerous than eating.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

4. Swerving? Sure sounds like phones. Probably texting.

At least while talking, the person can maintain lateral control - they might rear-end someone or worse dur to inattentiveness. But swerving sounds like a larger problem.

[sinkingfeeling]

5. Well, since Joplin and Springfield are closest to the Arkansas border, I can

fully understand. People here seem not to be able to stay in a lane. They can't even make a right hand turn and end up in their lane.

[randome]

8. I once carpooled with a guy who shaved and read the newspaper while he drove.

It made for some interesting experiences.

[kestrel91316]

9. I would bet serious money on the phone/texting thing.

[lapislzi]

10. Falling asleep at the wheel?

Just a hunch. If you're working two or three shifts in a row, or have more than one job, you are likely to be fatigued. I know the couple of times I've had near-incidents were times I'd worked 12 hours on my feet at a trade show and I was fighting to keep my eyes open.

I think texting and eating are equally bad, and probably contribute to the problem. But I think we need to look to more than one cause.

[MadHound]

13. Part of it is an increase in traffic

I live in Mid Mo, and frankly you're taking your life in your hands if you drive on I-70. Since I-70 is one of the most direct routes to the west, in addition to the fact that it is toll free(for now), the highway gets lots, I mean lots of truck traffic rolling through. Sorry to the DU truckers out there, but frankly there are a bunch of idiot truck drivers out there, swerving into lanes, tailgating, and either massive speeding or going excessively slow, many of the truckers coming through these days are a menace.

Then there are the regular drivers, who are doing the same thing as the truckers, basically they are unsafe, distracted drivers. Combine this with the fact that I-70 should have been expanded to six lanes(at least) twenty years ago, and voila, we have an increase in traffic accidents and deaths.

Worse, these unsafe drivers take their act off the highway and onto the two lane roads as well. We have lots of windy, hilly two lane roads, and sadly we have people blasting down them far too fast, and far too distracted.

I would dismiss it as evolution in action except for the fact that these idiots are killing others. We need our police to crack down, but that's not going to happen. They are understaffed, and far too interested in making drug busts to actually stop people for failing to drive in a safe manner.

[CrispyQ]

15. ...

"Combine this with the fact that I-70 should have been expanded to six lanes(at least) twenty years ago..."

Fuckin' A! The state of I-25 is horrid. Too few lanes, too many potholes. You can't swerve to miss a pothole, cuz there's no where to go cuz the 3-4 lanes are full of traffic almost all of the time.

An outdated & failing infrastructure hurts all of us, but we just can't convince half of America of that. Unbelievable!