The cause was easy enough to identify: Data parsed by Kuhls and her colleagues showed that drivers were speeding more, on highways and on surface streets, and plowing through intersections with an alarming frequency. Conversely, seatbelt use was down, resulting in thousands of injuries to unrestrained drivers and passengers. After a decade of steady decline, intoxicated-driving arrests had rebounded to near historic highs.
… The relationship between car size and injury rates is still being studied, but early research on the American appetite for horizon-blotting machinery points in precisely the direction you’d expect: The bigger the vehicle, the less visibility it affords, and the more destruction it can wreak.
- Speed limits are up.
- Cars are larger and heavier.
- People who can barely drive are given licenses.
- People aren’t retested every seven to ten years to check their cognition and ability, or familiarity with newer regulations like flashing yellow arrows and traffic circles.
- Traffic laws are barely enforced in many areas.
- Many states are getting rid of car inspections, so pieces of automobiles are flying into the road.
- There are far more semi trucks on the road, and many are less regulated with more inexperienced drivers, lack of inspection, and frequently resurfaced tires.