AUGUSTA, Maine — Public safety officials say the number of highway deaths in Maine is up 50 percent over last year.
The Bureau of Highway Safety says 97 people have died on Maine roads so far this year as of Friday. At the same time last year, there had been 65 deaths.
Officials say Maine has had four exceptionally safe years in a row on the state’s roadways, with last year being the safest since 1959.
Excessive speed is usually the top factor for highway fatalities.
Instead of DUI it is Texting thats killing people.
You are wrong, my friend. It is mostly excessive speed proven by the accident reconstruction people in addition to drinking or drugging before driving. Accidents caused by texting are so rare they make the news.
Speed does NOT kill, Bill. It is driver inexperience!
I’ll go with the professional accident reconstructionists, thank you, and not with people who only have opinions and who look only at the grains of sand on the beach rather than the entire beach.
The stats are there Bill, you just choose to ignore them… maybe you got sand in your eyes. As I posted already… German autobahn with NO speed limit has a lower death rate than US interstates. If you don’t have the skills to be behind the wheel, speed only makes things worse. BUT speed alone is NOT the root cause of accidents.
Comparing apples to oranges. The autobahn is a single, straight, multi lane highway across flat land built specifically for high speed traffic whereas US interstates are numerous and go through large metropolises, over mountains, around lakes, etc, etc. I’ve driven on every major highway in the U.S. and driving on them is far more dangerous than driving on the autobahn. At one time, the Montana flat country did not have any speed limit and they recently imposed one because of the high speed accidents. If we all drove 35 mph there would hardly be an accident and not the 35,000 people who are now killed on America’s highways every year.
You are wrong about this. Texting is a major factor. It’s rarely reported because it’s unpopular to report adverse issues with cell phone usage.
I’m merely quoting what the Maine Department of Transportation and the Maine State Police stated in their latest statistics about the causes of accidents.
Question: How many people would drive the speed of light if they could? Answer: Far, far more than anyone can imagine. Look at how we have been conditioned to think that “speed” is so important. In today’s world, everything is made into a race whether it is in the olympics, in the many variety of race tracks, to the moon or in the development of making arms for the next war. Faster, faster, faster, faster. For Pete’s sake, don’t you people understand how important it is to get somewhere faster? Even if it’s miliseconds, it is wicked important – and it is proven every day by the people who drive vehicles to include ATV’s, boats and snowmobiles. Faster, faster, faster, faster.
Bill people thrive on adrenalin,, maybe law enforcement should pass out more of their kind of adrenalin highs :-/
Reckless driving, you see it every day (or night) out on the road.
Obviously, more intrusive, government surveillance is needed. Drones, automated laser speed detection, video cameras – do whatever it takes. C’mon democrats, draft some more laws, create another false epidemic & steal those federal grants. This could be Maine’s next bottom-up economic boom & clearly, we need more laws to protect us from ourselves.
Don’t give them any ideas.
How many of those deaths were north of Old Town? On I95?
Is the cause of accidents excessive speed? NO! its is BS! BS! BS ! BS !!!!!
It is driver INEXPERIENCE! “Speed kills” is a worthless myth. If one simply looks at the data comparing US highways with their German counterparts, one would EXPECT that the death rate on the autobahn would exceed the death rate on US highways. However, it is NOT SO!
“The Autobahn is safer than U.S. highways. In 2001, the death rate there was 27 percent lower (0.59 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled versus 0.81 per million for the U.S. interstates)”
“Why? Drivers in Germany must be at least 18 years old and fork over more than $1,000 to undergo 24 hours of rigorous private instruction, including training on the Autobahn, and pass a comprehensive written test before obtaining a license. Compare this to the U.S., with no required training and a minimum age of 16 in some states. Also, unlike in the U.S., Germans use the left lane only for passing. “Let’s place the blame where it belongs instead of criminalizing those who just want to quickly get from point A to B!
Speed plus inattention to driving conditions and traffic due to texting, etc equals far too many accidents, including fatal ones. Slow down, people, and pay attention to the road. You will live longer, and so will the other people on the road with you.
Tell me why they just made the new Ford Mustang to attain the speed of 220 miles per hour in 6 seconds? Tell me why the make a snowmobile that will go 120 miles per hour. Do they expect that people are NOT going to drive them that fast? Ben Franklin and every early American got along very well using their feet, a horse or a wagon pulled by oxen. If they could witness what people do today regarding speed they would think we were abominable idiots. And they would be pretty close to right.
Maybe your president can make us all buy electric cars so we all can go slow. I’m sure that idea is coming some day.
It won’t matter. The real problem is that we now have 7 billion people on our planet and the population is increasing by leaps and bounds. And everyone, or most everyone, wants to go faster, faster, faster, faster.
Exaggerate much?
No car can do 0 to 220 mph in 6 seconds.
Please know that I am a “fact” person and not an “opinionator.” I read this in an NBC news item several days ago. This is a copy and paste of what the manufacturer said. Let’s get right to the numbers, shall we: 650, 600, and 200. The 2013 Ford Shelby GT500 produces 650 hp and 600 lb-ft of torque from its supercharged 5.8-liter V-8, and can reportedly top out at more than 200 mph. Yes, we said 200 mph. With the GT500, Ford has put the Bow Tie boys on notice — the Blue Oval is gunning for the 580-hp Camaro ZL1, so they’d better duck and cover.
Sort of misleading. If a bus carrying 65 people were to crash killing everyone, then it would be considered 1 fatal vehicle accident but 65 Highway deaths. Not to take away from the tragic loss of life but maybe they should be counting the number of fatal highway accidents to put a realistic count on the problem. The data implies more accidents but doesn’t exactly say that, it’s just saying more people are dying in accidents.
Must be LePage’s fault, right?
Well Col. Robert Williams, chief of the Maine State Police now that the stats are in how about your troopers start doing more radar checks huh ?? Just because ” cars today have a “very smooth ride” and it is easy for a driver to go faster than they realize. ” that statement doesn’t save lives,, wouldn’t one think diligently monitoring traffic speeds would help ??? Living up on route #11 in Aroostook county one sees how not monitoring traffic speeds tend to ALLOW speeders to become more brazen :-/ most cars 10 mph over, pickups 15 and 20 over the posted mph and trucks 20 and many times 30 over the posted limit, and nighttime from around midnight to sunrise the log trucks are the worst… How do I know these numbers of over limits ?? >> http://www.amazon.com/Bushnell-Velocity-Speed-Colors-vary/dp/B0002X7V1Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344863761&sr=8-1&keywords=radar+gun
http://bangor-launch.newspackstaging.com/2011/10/10/news/augusta/as-speeders-become-more-brazen-police-seek-to-analyze-habits/