| Subject: |
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Congress focuses on traffic fatalities |
| Name: |
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Tory Dunnan |
| Date Posted: |
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Apr 21, 07 - 7:33 AM |
| Email: |
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letters@islandpacket.com |
| Website: |
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http://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/story/6476748p-5768098c.html |
| Message: |
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By TORY DUNNAN
WASHINGTON -- A rising number of traffic fatalities has Congress looking for ways to make the nation's highways safer.
"The deaths, 43,443 Americans last year, 2.7 million more injured ... cannot be ignored," said Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri, the top Republican on a Senate transportation subcommittee during a hearing Thursday on the increasing number of highway deaths.
According to a preliminary report released by the South Carolina Department of Public Safety, 262 people died on state highways since the start of the year, up from 256 deaths by mid-April last year. That includes three fatalities in Beaufort County.
"If we are going to get back on track to reducing highway fatalities, it is clear that the old solutions are not going to be enough," said Sen. Patty Murray,
D-Wash., subcommittee chairman.
Witnesses told senators there are several possible ways to reduce crashes -- stricter drunken driving rules, tougher seat belt laws, motorcycle helmet mandates and truck regulations.
BUCKLE UP
South Carolina has one of the tougher seat belt laws, which has helped increase seat belt usage, according to Judie Stone, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety.
Sid Gaulden, spokesman for the South Carolina Department of Public Safety, said he "would like to think" state traffic deaths are down because of the law. From Jan. 1 through April 15, Beaufort County fatalities dropped from seven in 2004 to three this year.
But 20 percent of Americans still refuse to buckle up, Stone said.
According to the South Carolina Department of Public Safety, of the
209 killed from Jan. 1 to April 15,
137 were not wearing seat belts.
TWO WHEELS, TWO LEGS
"The place where we have not had success is particularly with motorcycles," said Nicole Nason, administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration at the hearing, "...and also with pedestrians."
South Carolina followed that trend.
"... In the last several months, in quite a bit of time last year in 2006, we had a number, an increased number, of motorcycle fatalities," said Gaulden, "but we also had a corresponding number of increase in pedestrian fatalities, people walking on roads, getting hit and killed that way."
State law requires motorcycle riders under 21 to wear a helmet.
"States that have a helmet law that cover all riders usually have a lower amount of deaths among motorcycle riders," said Max Young, director of the Office of Highway Safety in South Carolina. |
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