Drive or Fly, Which is Safer? Safe Air Driving Tips
Safe Air Driving Tips In the million or so miles I have driven in the Americas in my capacity as military, civilian, and EMT – trained in emergency driving – I have witnessed our roadways become increasingly dangerous. More and more drivers have either forgotten our laws or have adopted a reckless disregard for them.
OBEYING SPEED LIMITS
They almost never obey speed limits, fail to signal on turns, run red lights, fail to stop with people in crosswalks, and roll through stop signs. The list goes on… Further, driving distracted has become an endemic every day – an observed threat to public safety. Worse still, every day on any highway we see motorists dangerously weave their way through highway traffic at extremely high speeds threatening other motorists.
DEATH AND INJURIES
Moreover because of the lack of Safe Air Driving Tips, hit and runs involving injury, death, or vehicle damage occur an average of every minute. U.S. hit and runs averaged 682,000 per year since 2006. In 2016, there were 2049 deaths – a 60% increase. 65% of deaths were pedestrians or bicyclists say AAA in a 2020 Traffic Safety Report. Furthermore, Motor vehicle death rates have climbed sharply even though miles driven have declined significantly. On March 8, 2021, AP article, the Globe reported 4.8 million people were injured in car crashes nationwide – 42,060 deaths in 2020.
Percentage
That is the highest since 2007. In fact, the Globe said of 2020 “the fatality rate per 100 million miles driven spiked 24 percent, the largest annual percentage increase since the (National Safety) council began collecting data in 1923.” With the first half of the 20th century having little or no car safety features like seatbelts or airbags, one would expect the death and injury rates to be much lower, but not so; even with today’s collision avoidance systems, injuries and deaths continue to climb.
- Many people are driving illegally.
- A lot of peopel are driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
- And A lot consistently drive distracted.
- Many motorists drive over solid lines and threaten opposing traffic.
- Too many threaten the safety of others by tailgating – especially so at highway speeds.
- Too many do not know how to drive in hazardous conditions. (Car pile-ups are common when bad weather arrives).
When you combine any number of these behaviors, you arrive at a lethal mix. Today it is never a question of if, but how soon such driving behaviors will cause an accident or death. Our roads have become a wild west theater where anything goes and too little law enforcement shows. Consider for a minute if there were 421 deaths annually from U.S. aircraft accidents: Representing only 1% of 2020 road deaths, this would surely be a national outrage.
Federal Aviation Administration
There is a simple model to make our Roadways Safer at a very-little cost: Follow the lead of the Federal Aviation Administration. Federal Aviation Regulation, FAR, 14 CFR Section 61.56 requires every U.S. licensed pilot of almost every kind of aircraft operated to undergo an extensive proficiency review at least every two years. This biannual review covers all areas of operation that match a pilot’s rating. These standards include regulations, normal and emergency procedures, and safety. The benefit is a low accident and fatality rate. Since there are far more car crashes in a single day than there are plane crashes in an entire year, shouldn’t we be focused on driver proficiency if we are serious about safety?
If every driver were tested each two years and certified to objective standards, safe driving would improve dramatically. Roads would be significantly safer, insurance rates would likely curve downward, and roadway death rates would soon turnaround and plummet.
Practice makes a man Perfect
Similar to flight simulators, the Massachusetts Division of Motor Vehicles, DMV, could offer automated instruction, practice, and testing to make our roads safer with extraordinarily little need for additional manpower to oversee such a program. FAA already fully counts and credits flight simulator training and flight tests toward meeting flight performance standards including the biannual flight review, BFR. So why not have cloud-based driver training and simulation like FAA-certified flight simulators do today?
Motivating drivers
Motivating drivers beyond a legal requirement could be amazingly easy. Drivers who score in the highest percentile with zero vehicular violations should receive a safe driver certificate from the Registrar of Motor Vehicles. They should also be privy to the lowest auto insurance rates.
If I can drive about a million miles without causing an accident, what does that say about the value of my pilot and driver training? It says it works!
It appears to me that if we can launch a successful Martian takeoff and landing, create a covid vaccine in less than a year, and administer it to most Americans in less than another, why can’t we launch driver safety testing within two years?
Massachusetts as a national model: We have led before and now it is time for us to lead again with driver safety performance standards through biannual testing and higher operational standards. We just cannot afford 482,000 motor vehicle injuries and thousands of deaths every year.