Sports & Recreation

Stay Safe on the Road

Road safety is a high priority concern for each and every one of us. Every year, over thirty thousand people die on the roads of America. One in every one hundred thousand Americans die every year due to road related accidents. In fact, car crashes is one of the leading causes of death for people under twenty five years old. The worst part is that all of these deaths are unnecessary and could have been avoided with better road safety—that is over a quarter of a million lives for the last eight years alone!

Despite the obvious dangers associated with road travel though, taking the car has become deeply embedded in our way of life that it would be ridiculous to stop people from using cars. What can be done is improve and implement best practices for road safety. Better informed and better prepared drivers will lead to significantly fewer deaths.

The good news when it comes to road safety is that the incidence of road deaths has been steadily declining for the last decade, more or less. This is partly due to better information dissemination, improved vehicle construction and safety standards and improved traffic law enforcement. With regards to law enforcement, the dropping cost of radar technology has helped in the enforcement of the rules of the road. A typical traffic policeman is now equipped with a police radar gun to apprehend speeders. Radar speed limit signs are now prevalent as well which serves as a deterrent for potential speeders.