9/11 happens every 5 weeks on U.S. roadways

The world is in mourning over the terrorist attacks in Paris where about 130 people died and many more were injured, and rightly so.    In the United States, people are updating their Facebook profiles to support the victims of that attack, while police and other security agencies are stepping up efforts to protect American citizens from similar attacks. Meanwhile, we have much more deadly terrorists ravaging our nation on a daily basis, putting the 9/11 and Paris attackers to shame by comparison. I speaking of the drunk drivers, reckless drivers, texting drivers, otherwise distracted drivers, and plain old mistake-prone drivers who slaughter over 33,000 fellow Americans on a YEARLY basis.

Statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and National Safety Council (NSC) show that about 100 Americans die every day on U.S. Roadways:

• http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx
• http://www.nsc.org/NewsDocuments/2015/6-month-fatality-increase.pdf

So, in less than two days the number of Americans killed in automobile accidents exceed the lives lost in the Paris attacks. This continues day-after-day, month-after-month, and year-after-year with bodies piling up in massive numbers. Since 9/11, over 500,000 Americans have died thanks to traffic accidents – that is roughly equivalent to 172 repeats of 9/11 (or 9/11 every 5 weeks) happening at a personal level, shattering the lives of individuals and families as these losses pile up. None of these families receive the kind of federal monetary compensation that 9/11 victims received. Beyond fatalities, about 4.5 million Americans are injured in car accidents every year. This is dramatically lowering quality of life, increasing medical costs, increasing insurance costs, increasing legal costs, and lowering worker productivity.

If 100 people were dying every day in plane crashes, there would be a national outcry and politicians would be sparing no expense trying to fund programs that prevent future accidents. If 100 people were dying in terrorist attacks every day, the national guard would be deployed in every state and martial law would be in place. Yet for some reason we complacently sit back and let 100 Americans die each day on the road and see scores more injured – even though the technology EXISTS TODAY to prevent many if not the majority of these accidents. The need for that safety technology is growing exponentially as we now have our youth constantly distracted by another new technology – the smart phone – while they drive. A NSC study in May indicated that about 27% of all car crashes are now due to cell phone use:

• http://www.nsc.org/learn/about/Pages/Cell-phones-involved-estimated-27-percent-car-crashes.aspx?var=homepage1

Meanwhile, as Americans are living longer, we will have more elderly people on the road driving with declining reaction times, raising the probability of many more tragic accidents that will ruin the lives of all involved.

The carnage needs to end and we now have the technology to drastically reduce vehicle accidents if automakers are REQUIRED to install these collision avoidance features in ALL NEW VEHICLES by the 2018 model year. Currently most of these enhanced safety features are “optional” unless purchasing a high end luxury car, but they could be available to everyone if the U.S. Congress passed legislation to mandate it:

• http://www.techtimes.com/articles/58973/20150609/ntsb-calls-on-u-s-car-manufacturers-to-make-collision-avoidance-systems-standard-for-new-vehicles.htm
• http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2015/04/cars-that-can-save-your-life/index.htm
• http://www.autonews.com/article/20150724/OEM06/150729917/chevrolet-plans-low-cost-pedestrian-avoidance-on-malibu
• http://corporate.ford.com/microsites/sustainability-report-2013-14/vehicle-avoidance.html
• http://www.safercar.gov/staticfiles/safetytech/st_landing_ca.htm#st_tabs

Auto-makers and consumer advocates may argue that requiring such features would make cars too expensive for the poor. To that I again say, if 100 people were dying every day from terrorist attacks or plane crashes, Congress would be willing to fund/subsidize whatever program or safety features would be necessary to dramatically reduce those numbers. If congress or states are willing to give tax credits to rich people buying $80,000 Tesla electric vehicles, then certainly they can find a way to give credits to lower-income people that buy cars with MANDATORY safety features.

Think of all of the ancillary cost savings that will accumulate over time as these safety features appear on American roadways on ALL NEW VEHICLES starting in 2018. Car Insurance costs will become minuscule by 2025 as fatalities and injuries and even car accident damage repair costs become an uncommon occurrence. Similarly, avoiding the massive health costs associated with treating the injured from automobile accidents would certainly lower the trajectory of health insurance costs for all Americans. Legal expenses would go down naturally, and disability fraud would go down as people could no longer “fake” disability due to car accidents.

Taking things a step further, the tragedy occurring on U.S. Roadways every day makes it worth funding retrofits of existing cars to take advantage of at least some level of accident avoidance technology. We shouldn't wait for the safety technology to be introduced through new cars only. Often our most dangerous drivers (the very new/young drivers, very old drivers, or dangerous/drunk drivers) are the ones who will be driving older cars that don't have crash avoidance technology. Do we really need more senseless loss of our youth? Incentives to retrofit could come in the form of tax credits or rebates.

• http://safedrivesystems.com/

If we are willing to spend billions to stop the future threat of global warming that hasn't killed a single American, why wouldn't we want to invest in the lives of Americans today by doing whatever we can to make our roads safe to drive on?