Personal Injury Law

Speed Kills but Ticketing Falls

By Hurley, McKenna & Murtz

Although no one likes getting a speeding ticket, ticketing serves an important function ? to deter drivers from driving too fast and causing injury to themselves and others on the roadway. According to the New York Times blog, Wheels, ?even if you speed every day, the laws of probability say you will get only one speeding ticket every 35 years.?

According to the New York City Report, ?Executive Order: A Mayoral Strategy for Traffic Safety,? even though ?the number of deaths from speeding-related accidents increased gradually, at a rate of slightly more than one per year, between 2001 and 2006, the number of speeding tickets issued fell by more than 20,000.? One report accused New York City Police Department of prioritizing traffic flow over traffic saftey violations.

For the nation as a whole, however, the number of all traffic fatalities ?have been dropping steadily over the past two decades.? Paul Steely White said ?the decline in fatalities shows that reducing them even further is possible.? Mr. White further stated that New York may consider setting a goal of zero traffic fatalities, a goal some European cities have already adopted. Even though he conceeded that ?most people would laugh at that goal in New York?adopting that as a vision and as a goal, however unattainable, is really what?s needed.?

As a personal injury lawyer, I support anything that limits traffic fatalities. Even though zero traffic fatalities may be an extremely ambitious goal, it is a step in the right direction.

Full post as published by Illinois Car and Truck Accident Lawyer Blog on July 17, 2009 (boomark / email).