• Highways: Arrive alive Highways: Arrive alive From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch – June 27, 2004 Turn off the cell phone, buckle up and keep your eyes on the road. About 555 Americans will die on the nation’s highways next
• Highways: Arrive alive
Highways: Arrive alive
From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch – June 27, 2004
Turn off the cell phone, buckle up and keep your eyes on the road. About 555 Americans will die on the nation’s highways next weekend. Thousands more will be seriously injured. That’s a lousy way to celebrate the Fourth of July.
What makes it all the more tragic is that many deaths and injuries can be prevented – by a seat belt, a designated driver or a little common sense.
For the second time in 10 days, emergency workers responding to a crash were hit by another driver last week in Sunset Hills. Both were released later from area hospitals. Emergency workers say there has been an increase in accidents involving police or firefighters responding to highway crashes. These so-called “secondary accidents” have become such a problem that the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health has issued special precautions for emergency crews. The best way of reducing such accidents also may be the simplest: Slow down – some experts say by as much as 20 miles per hour – when you see flashing lights ahead. Police or paramedics focus so intensely on helping victims that they may inadvertently get too close to moving traffic. Drivers approaching the scene of an accident should anticipate that and be prepared to stop. Secondary accidents also are caused by distracted or tired drivers. A national traffic safety survey last year found that drivers are distracted during as many as half of their daily trips by talking to passengers or on cell phones, changing the radio station, eating, looking for CDs, or dealing with disruptive kids in the back seat.
