Washington is headed towards one other grim milestone because the 12 months ends. Deaths involving motor autos have nearly doubled in the last decade, with the tempo this 12 months more likely to move 2022’s 33-year-high of 750 lives claimed. The extent of carnage is unacceptable, and governments in any respect ranges should work to cease it.
The Washington State Division of Transportation’s purpose of “Target Zero” appeared daring however achievable just a few years in the past. Now it feels wildly unrealistic. A majority of nearly 11,000 respondents this year felt it was both “reasonably or extraordinarily harmful to drive on public roads,” in response to a survey by the Washington Site visitors Security Fee. The identical respondents felt it much more unsafe to stroll or bike.
Within the final decade, round half of deadly crashes included drunken or in any other case impaired driving as an element; a 3rd concerned pace; and 1 / 4 inattention — probably a driver’s use of a smartphone, site visitors security fee statistics say.
Within the face of 2022’s dying toll, the best in additional than three a long time, Gov. Jay Inslee and the Legislature did not do sufficient this 12 months to deal with the issue. Lawmakers can be contemplating various proposals — amongst them reducing the present DUI blood-alcohol restrict from .08 to .05, limiting right-turns on red lights at intersections, and increasing digicam enforcement — that might save lives.
Justice should additionally get swifter in Washington’s DUI circumstances. It’s been taking a staggering period of time — almost a 12 months on common — to supply the outcomes of a defendant’s blood pattern. Missing such important proof delays and even results in dismissal of expenses in opposition to defendants, who will, undoubtedly, get again behind the wheel. A just-opened $4.5 million Washington State Patrol lab in Federal Means ought to pace alongside prosecutions — a step in the proper course.
Inslee’s price range requires extra funding for the Washington State Patrol and staffing for the state toxicology labs. He’s additionally proposing increasing site visitors enforcement cameras to state highways, past their restricted use in class and freeway work zones. One other constructive step.
Engineering of roadways, too, has a job to play. Smarter avenue designs may help gradual automobile speeds and improve the protection of bicyclists and pedestrians, whose death toll has tripled in the state over the last decade. These are worthwhile enhancements however they’ll take time when motion is required now. Native governments ought to establish and intervene in probably the most harmful sections of roadway, swiftly increase consciousness of the issue and ship a message, via site visitors enforcement, that harmful driving can be penalized.
Throughout the state, police are issuing roughly half the tickets they wrote earlier than the pandemic, in response to the site visitors security fee’s statistics. There are myriad reasons for this precipitous drop. Some departments, like Seattle, are so understaffed they’re having hassle responding to main crimes, not to mention speeders.
“There’s a way of impunity amongst some drivers,” says Steve Strachan, government director of the Washington Affiliation of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, “who’re treating Washington’s roads like they’re a raceway.”
That angle should be modified. Finally, the accountability of protected roads falls to us all. Please drive sober, safely and with a seat belt this vacation season, and past. Let’s be certain motorists, cyclists and pedestrians alike could make it via their vacation plans unscathed.
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