An advocacy group simply concluded a examine into which of the states within the U.S. has the worst site visitors legal guidelines, and arms down the reply was Missouri. Researchers say if the legal guidelines there don’t change, extra folks will die on the state’s roads.
Advocates For Freeway & Auto Security performed a examine of site visitors legal guidelines from state to state, the Kansas Metropolis Star stories. Cathy Chase, President for the Advocates For Freeway & Auto Security, instructed the paper researchers checked out whether or not states had 18 completely different freeway legal guidelines confirmed to scale back crashes, save lives and scale back accidents. These included restrictions on new drivers, automotive seat necessities for youngsters and seat belts, and helmet legal guidelines. Missouri got here up final within the examine. Of these 18 legal guidelines, the state had only one that was enacted, and even then the legislation isn’t precisely official, says the Star:
Missouri was thought of harmful as a result of it has solely one of many 18 legal guidelines on the books. And that single legislation — permitting purple gentle cameras — was deemed invalid by the state Supreme Courtroom. This implies since 2015, purple gentle cameras have solely been operational in a single city: Hannibal, Missouri.
Missouri wants these legal guidelines. Roads everywhere in the state have been lethal all the yr. The Kansas Metropolis Star stories knowledge from the Missouri Coalition for Roadway Security reveals that from January by way of November of this yr, 854 folks had been killed on Missouri roads in site visitors associated accidents; 110 of these deaths had been in northwestern Jackson County, probably the most in all the state.
The 18 site visitors legal guidelines Missouri is lacking are legal guidelines you suppose could be no brainers for officers to implement. They embrace texting whereas driving restrictions, booster seat necessities for youngsters, prohibiting children below 13 from sitting within the entrance seat and helmet necessities for bike riders. Missouri at the moment requires a bike helmet for riders 25 and youthful. When you’re 26 or older and you’ve got medical health insurance, you don’t need to put on a helmet whereas driving.
Ideas on what the state may do to make roads extra safer additionally reveals that it’s not simply lawless drivers who’re guilty for the lethal roads. Growing older infrastructure design performs an element on this as nicely.
Whereas altering driver habits by way of stricter site visitors legal guidelines is one a part of retaining motorists protected, infrastructure methods even have a big function in making crashes much less extreme. The Federal Freeway Administration suggests narrowing roads, utilizing pace bumps and rising visibility to make human errors much less catastrophic. In June, Kansas Metropolis officers promised $4 million to site visitors calming efforts across the metropolis.
Missouri is as lethal as they’re saying however solely to a sure level, which isn’t something to brag about. A examine accomplished utilizing knowledge from the NHTSA decided that Missouri ranked third in deadly freeway accidents. The state had a price of 15.45 deaths per 100,000 folks; for perspective, the nationwide common is 9.12 deaths per 100,000 folks. Solely Wyoming and New Mexico had been deadlier, with the states taking the one and two spots.
Cathy Chase says that the state must make a change, and step one is definitely getting the legal guidelines on the books and ensuring they’re enforced. “The 1st step is to get a great legislation on the books. After which after that, to be sure that there are educated legislation enforcement officers…to implement the site visitors security legal guidelines,” Chase instructed the Kansas Metropolis Star.
