> Now you see how easy it is to reduce the incredible highway carnage. This
> is equivalent to preventing two or three 911 attacks every year!! And you
> can bet the boobus americanus doesn't give a damn.
>
> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25801898/
>
> Traffic deaths fall as gas prices climb
> As economy slumps, people are venturing out less
>
> updated 3:41 p.m. MT, Tues., July. 22, 2008
>
> COLUMBUS, Ohio - Rising prices at the gas pump appear to be having at
> least one positive effect: Traffic deaths around the country are
> plummeting, just as they did during the Arab oil embargo three decades
> ago.
>
> Researchers with the National Safety Council report a 9 percent drop in
> motor vehicle deaths overall through May compared with the first five
> months of 2007, including a drop of 18 percent in March and 14 percent in
> April.
>
> Preliminary figures obtained by The Associated Press show that some
> states have reported declines of 20 percent or more. Thirty-one states
> have seen declines of at least 10 percent, and eight states have reported
> an increase, according to the council.
>
> The federal government reported in April that miles traveled fell 1.8
> percent in April compared with a year earlier, continuing a trend that
> began in November.
>
> Fewer people on the road means fewer fatalities, said Gus Williams, 52,
> of Albany, Ga., who frequently drives to northern Ohio. "That shows a
> good thing coming out of this crisis." He has also noticed that many
> motorists are going slower.
>
> But the last time road deaths fell this fast and this sharply was during
> the Arab oil embargo in 1973-1974, when fatalities tumbled 17 percent,
> from about 55,100 to 46,000; and as states raised the drinking age to 21
> in 1982-83, when fatalities fell 11 percent, from roughly 49,300 to
> 44,000.
>
> Chuck Hurley, a former official with the National Safety Council and the
> Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, said half of the decline in road
> deaths during the 1970s was attributed to high gas prices. The remainder
> was linked to the lowering of freeway speed limits to 55 mph.
>
> (snip)