More action needed on highway safety
Jim McNutt/Observer-Reporter Exterior of the Observer-Reporter building in Washington.
After years of decline, motor vehicle crash fatalities rose nationwide in 2015, and early data suggests the number was climbing significantly again last year. A highway safety group points to Pennsylvania as one of 17 states that are failing to do enough to keep those numbers down.
The new report from Advocates for Highway & Auto Safety credits five states and the District of Columbia for having enacted at least 11 of 15 laws it considers important, including primary enforcement of seat belt use by those in the front and rear seats of vehicles. Primary enforcement means that a driver can be pulled over and cited for that offense alone. A state also could get the group’s “green” rating if it had passed nine or more of the laws but also has full primary seat belt enforcement and an all-rider motorcycle helmet law.
Pennsylvania is among the states receiving the “red” rating. The safety group criticized the Keystone State for failing to have primary enforcement of its seat belt laws, absence of a full motorcycle helmet law, an inadequate booster seat law for children, insufficient laws restricting teen drivers and the lack of a law requiring all people convicted of drunken driving to use an ignition interlock system.
It’s always been mind-boggling to us that Pennsylvania once had a full-scale motorcycle helmet law but, under pressure from biker groups, watered down the law to the point that now only young and inexperienced riders must wear helmets. Motorcycle crash deaths are up across the nation, and it’s pure foolishness for our state not to have a law compelling all motorcycle riders and passengers to wear helmets.
We’ve heard all the arguments from motorcycle riders against mandatory helmet use, and not one of them holds water. The rest of us should not have to pay higher insurance costs because people are too irresponsible to put on protective headgear, and end up getting killed or suffering horrific, long-term injuries as a result.
Pennsylvania does get credit for having a law prohibiting texting while driving, but it does far too little to address the use of electronic devices by drivers. For one thing, the existing law is incredibly difficult to enforce, because it’s hard to prove that someone who has a phone in his or her hand was actually texting and not looking at GPS directions or dialing a phone number.
Our state lawmakers, if they truly care about the safety of those on our roads, would pass a law banning all use of hand-held electronic devices by drivers. Yes, that means making it illegal for people to talk on their hand-held phones while behind the wheel (except in rare cases of emergency use). Very few calls are so important that they cannot wait until a person pulls over or arrives at their destination.
We’ve beaten this drum time and time again, but it’s long overdue for action to address the problem of elderly drivers who no longer are capable of safely navigating our roads. Sure, doctors and family members can sometimes get the keys from those who pose a danger to themselves and others, but it happens too infrequently.
Hardly a week goes by that we don’t see a story in this paper or on the Pittsburgh TV news involving an elderly motorist who gets confused by the pedals under their feet, hits the gas instead of the brake and plows into a building. Retesting of those past a certain age, or for anyone whose abilities to drive safely have been called into question, simply makes good sense.
We’ve had traffic deaths rising for two years running. Clearly, the safety measures we have put in place are falling short. It’s time for our elected officials here and across the country to consider what they might do to make us safer.