Comments on: Traffic Advisory

By: Opus the Poet

Opus the Poet — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 05:51:32 +0000

Improved trauma care is the reason why the UK has switched from fatalities to fatalities/serious injuries, because the level of injury that would have been fatal after a few days of victim suffering is now survivable, and usually without serious impairment after recovery. The most significant thing is what used to be non-survivable head trauma can now be treated with minimal loss of brain function. The victim usually can’t hold a job because of the level of impairment, but otherwise functions normally in society.

By: Ed

Ed — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 03:14:32 +0000

Brad: thanks! i was just going to looking for it….

Another thing i wonder about, in terms of explanations (like you mention airbags, etc) — where does improved trauma care fit in? It seems to me that it has probably improved dramatically since 1994; yet i’ve not seen that posited as an explanation for decrease in fatalities.

By: Brad Templeton

Brad Templeton — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 03:01:41 +0000

The paper is here:

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/71390/1/102304.pdf

It should be noted that while deaths are way down, it is just just because of less driving, as deaths/mile are also down.

Almost of all of this, except the pedestrians, may well just be explained by the fact that cars are much safer, with airbags and better crumple zones, and collision avoidance systems.

By: Ed

Ed — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 01:40:13 +0000

I’ve noticed in Arizona, over the past 10 years crashes (all crashes) had peaked in 2006 and since then dropped dramatically — like the national data, even more sharply.
BUT the bicyclist crashes (my area of interest) have not dropped, they’ve been more or less static. I wonder if the “Local roads Up” noted by Sivak is portending more crashes for bicyclists?

http://azbikelaw.org/blog/manner-and-fault-in-bicyclist-traffic-fatalities-arizona-2009/
see Table 1 in the paper.