Slow the truck down

Just a year ago, Peggy and I would take a nice ride on Sunday afternoons as we kicked into full lockdown. We wouldn't go anywhere at all, since there was nowhere to go. But gas was dirt cheap since no one was driving much.

So we'd hit the road in northern Baltimore County and Harford County, just seeing the sights. You can see a lot of farms and ranchettes by staying off the main roads and driving up and down the old country lanes. Seeing another car was almost like the first days of auto travel - we almost felt like waving at the people in that Stutz Bearcat or Model T as they careered on past us.

It was a good way to see other sights beside the walls here at the Lazy 'C' Ranch bunkhouse, and then we'd go home and be back in hibernation. We always remarked on the scarcity of other vehicles, and we figured that besides us Sunday drivers (so THAT'S where the expression comes from!) everyone else was home, with the Biscayne parked for the nonce. 

So here we are, one year later, and guess what? Yes, traffic was way down last year, and traffic deaths were way up!

How's that? Well, while we were out toodling along on Milk Barn Rd, America's car fiends saw those unoccupied lanes on highways and mistook them for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The National Safety Council put out a report the other day, and they say 42,060 people never got to come home from the last car ride they over took in 2020. That was up 8% over 2019, and remember, there was much less traffic in 2020.

This was the first increase in four years.

Broken down on a per-million-miles-driven basis, the fatality rate jumped 24%, and that was the biggest increase since the safety council started jotting down the data in 1923 - and they should know, because, as Doug Heffernan says, they are The Department Of Driving.

And, as people will, once we get into a bad habit, we tend to keep it going. “It’s kind of terrifying what we're seeing on our roads,” said Michael Hanson, director of the Minnesota Public Safety Department’s Office of Traffic Safety. “We’re seeing a huge increase in the amount of risk-taking behavior.”

We drove a chunky 13% fewer miles last year, and yet we kept the ambulances and busy.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says speed is the top factor in our parade of foolish behaviors, and of course, tests of trauma center patients involved in traffic crashes show increased use of alcohol, marijuana and opioids.

In Minnesota, traffic volumes fell 60% when stay-home orders were issued early in the pandemic last spring. Hanson said state officials expected a corresponding drop in crashes and deaths, but while crashes declined, deaths increased.

Back to the Empty Roads As An Invitation theme: the Minnesota State Patrol ticketed just over 500 drivers for exceeding 100 mph in 2019. In 2020, that figure more than doubled, to 1068.

Masters of stating the obvious the safety council reminds us that driving over 100 mph results in far more serious crashes.

Is this the best we can do?