Traffic Deaths On The Rise -- What's Really To Blame?

By Bill Visnic

The National Safety Council reported this week that traffic deaths and serious injuries in the U.S. are on a pace to rise for the first time in nearly a decade. If the trend for the first six months of this year continues, the NSC says traffic fatalities in the nation will exceed 40,000 for the first time since 2007 and deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled also will increase.

This despite evermore crashworthy cars and high-tech electronic safety features.

The “speed kills” coalition will blame the trend reversal on many states’ recent moves to higher highway speed limits, but the real culprits, suggests NSC president Deborah Hershman to the Associated Press, are low fuel prices and – get ready for it – cellphone mania.

Photo: AP