INTERNATIONAL NEWS: Europe Leads U.S. in Traffic Safety, New Report Finds

OFF THE WIRE
http://www.fairwarning.org/2010/11/europe-leads-u-s-in-traffic-safety-new-report-finds/

Europe Leads U.S. in Traffic Safety, New Report Finds By Elise Craig on November 2010
Europeans are doing a better job than Americans at reducing traffic fatalities, according to a new report by the National Research Council, and the reasons are partly cultural.
“It’s not that they have technologies that we don’t have,” report author Clinton Oster told NPR. “It’s that they use them more extensively and they manage their highway safety programs more and better than we do.”
For example, many countries in Europe require motorcycle riders to wear helmets, but most U.S. states lack similar laws. Earlier this week, the National Transportation Safety Board passage of universal motorcycle helmet laws as one of its top priorities. The agency, however, has no authority to compel states to adopt any proposed measures.
Earlier this month, Houston voters voted to ban cameras designed to catch people who run red lights. Supporters of the ban successfully argued the cameras were about racking up traffic charges, rather than safety.
But some experts expressed concerned. “We’ve sort of lost track of the fact that the real victims of red-light running aren’t the red-light runners; it’s the people they’re running into,” Adrian Lund, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, told NPR.
Europeans also beat the U.S. on efforts to reduce drunk driving. Sobriety checkpoints are more common in Europe, and laws there are generally more stringent about blood alcohol levels.
The report also noted that lives could be saved by changing the way roads are constructed, such as by replacing intersections with traffic circles that would force people to slow down.
Traffic fatalities have fallen in the U.S. in recent years, but experts attribute the decline to a bad economy, not improved safety measures.