Ray LaHood: America Is Safer Because Nobody Is Having Fun

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

Yes, despite the ever-present dangers of distracted driving and demonically-possessed Toyotas, US highways are safer than ever [full PDF report here]. Overall deaths in 2009 were at their lowest levels since 1950, even as vehicle miles traveled increased. Highway fatalities have been falling for the past four years, and in 2009 even motorcycle fatalities decreased for the first time in 11 years. At 1.13 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled in 2009, fatalities per VMT fell to another all-time low. Why? It could be the market-fueled arms race to stuff ever more standard safety equipment into cars, or incessant pressure on OEMs from the IIHS (and its ilk)… or, if you’re Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, you might think that

the weak economy was a contributing factor as many Americans chose not to go out to bars and restaurants after work or on the weekend.

Yes, the man tasked with keeping our highway safe believes that his ongoing success is the product of Americans moping around the house because of a down economy. Even though VMT actually increased by .2 percent over 2008. In other words, despite “talking about safety more than anyone in Washington,” Ray LaHood is both clueless about the data, and convinced that a weak economy helps his crusade. Which makes you wonder what the man means when he says

While we’ve come a long way, we have a long distance yet to travel.

Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • Ihatetrees Ihatetrees on Sep 10, 2010

    It'd be interesting to see graph comparing fatalities per VMT by states. And by countries.

  • Shiney2 Shiney2 on Sep 10, 2010

    This is a meaningless rant. Its a dumb quote, but hardly worth wasting time over, and not necessarily entirely wrong - at least if his intent was to say drinking and driving was down. You point out that "alcohol-impaired fatalities were down 7.5 percent but “restraint not used” fatalities were down 11 percent? Also, the number of crashes was down 5 percent, but fatal crashes were down 10 percent". Perhaps that means sober people are more likely to wear restraints and less likely to have fatal crashes?

  • AaronH AaronH on Sep 10, 2010

    Just another great reason to destroy American prosperity...Eh LaHood? Voters are too stupid to be free.

  • John Horner John Horner on Sep 11, 2010

    This piece is a classic example of taking one statement out of context and turning it into meaning something entirely different. If you actually read what LaHood said, he certainly was not saying that a weak economy is a good thing, only that it is one of the many factors which influenced to the results. Here is a little more of the original article.

    " LaHood said the weak economy was a contributing factor as many Americans chose not to go out to bars and restaurants after work or on the weekend.

    But he said many motorists are more safety conscious behind the wheel. About 85 percent of Americans wear seat belts while benefiting from safety advances found in today's cars and trucks.

    Side air bags that protect the head and midsection are becoming standard equipment on many new vehicles. Electronic stability control, which helps motorists avoid rollover crashes, is more common on new cars and trucks, while some luxury models have lane departure warnings and other safety features."

    Oh, and by the way, 34,000 people still lost their lives in auto accidents in the US last year. About eleven times the number who died in the infamous 9/11/01 terrorist attacks.

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