- Messages
- 4,070
- Reactions
- 9,372
Funny thing is, the uptick in death exactly co-incides with the increased speed statewide. What was 55-60 mph and generally survivable, is now 65-75 mph and generally not. LOL. Basic physics - no mystery.
The increase in population has a lot to do with it too. More people, means more wrecks. Cars are a lot more safer than when I was a firefighter / paramedic 30 years ago. Even with increased speeds, air bags, better vehicle construction all help decrease deaths.
I was looking a some number on the NTSB website the other day and the real metric is passenger deaths per million miles driven. Steady declines in the last 20 years. Even with the increased speed limits, most drivers are doing 15 to 20 mph faster than the limit anyway. Enforcement is practically non existent any more and limited to the worst cases the police can come across.
OSP has the worst crashes sometimes since those are all usually on higher speed state highways. Lane departure crashes, distracted driving, and as you pointed out the laws of physics prevail every time. People will take extreme chances to get in front of somebody they perceive is slowing them down. To the extent that they will put themselves and others at risk. Those same passenger deaths per million miles say a lot of them will get away with it.
The ones that don't are usually then involved in catastrophic collisions that can have multiple fatalities. Do a few body removals from those wrecks and you will have a real good understanding of how bad they can be.