St Louis Speed Limits

Arrive Alive is a program that is aiming to reduce the number of deaths caused by dangerous driving to under 850 in 2012.  This program has introduced different methods of helping people to avoid having accidents and as a result of this there was a reduction in fatalities for 5 years in a row, and in 2010 they reached the goal of under 850 which was two years earlier than they were aiming for.   The fatalities for past years are as follows:

2005 – 1257
2006 – 1096
2007 – 992
2008 – 960
2009 – 878
2010 – 821

Hopefully by continuing with the program in the future the numbers can drop even further.

The program aimed to change a range of things to make the improvement. The first is to change the seat belt law, as at the moment you can only be charged with not wearing a seatbelt if you have broken another law.  If the change is made it is predicted that another 63 lives would be saved each year and also 759 serious injuries would not occur.  A campaign to make people more aware of needing to wear seat belts included advertisements on TV and the radio and articles in print.  Currently nationwide 85% of people wear seatbelts but in Missouri it is only 79% and these are more likely to be teens or truck drivers. The statistics show that 7 out of the 10 people killed in crashes in this state aren’t wearing a seatbelt.

Focus was also drawn to motocycle riders.  They must all wear a DOT approved helmet by law but some still don’t wear them. The main focus was on drivers of other vehicles to warn them to keep an eye out for motorcycles as half of the fatal crashes involving motorcycles were caused by them colliding with another vehicle.  So it was pointed out that motocycles need a full lane and should be treated the same as any other vehicle on the road.

Keeping an eye out for bikes was another warning given to car drivers. But pedestrians and cyclists were also given directions on how to be safe on the roads by being aware of traffic and assuming it won’t stop for them as well as wearing bright colours so they can be seen on the road.

Drivers were reminded that children should be in a safety seat or on a booster until the are 80lbs or 4’9″.  Many road accidents involve children and they have a far better chance of surviving if they are correctly strapped into a car.

Older drivers have been reminded that they need to make sure that they are in good enough health to handle a car. If family or friends are worried then they should encourage them to have a health check up.

One of the other main focuses of the Arrive Alive program is school buses.  It is safer to travel on the bus than in a car, but children need to be aware of traffic when they are getting on and off the bus as they can be hit if they don’t look for traffic carefully enough.

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