Last week, Bergman Engineering founder Keith Bergman attended the 2014 Pennsylvania Safety Symposium as part of his continuing professional development. The conference brought together engineers, transportation professionals and legislators to discuss the most pressing of Pennsylvania’s transportation safety priorities.
A number of presenters discussed a variety of transportation safety issues that had been identified as key topics to discuss at the 2014 conference, including DUI laws, automated speed enforcement, seatbelt usage, and young driver safety.
Many of the statistics from these presentations were staggering and enlightening, which is why we would like to share some of them with you on our blog.
Take for example, speeding, which is the cause of too many otherwise avoidable accidents. Consider the following statistics:
- According to a 2012 AAA Safety Culture report, within the past month, 49.3% of drivers had driven 15mph over the highway speed limit and 46.8% of drivers had driven 10mph over the residential speed limit.
- In 2011, an average of 27 people per day died in speed related crashes.
- As estimated by the NHTSA, the economic cost of speed-related collisions is $1,281 per second.
- According to the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, speeding costs every Pennsylvanian $926 annually.
- The Roosevelt Boulevard, which has a speed limit of 45mph, is regularly traveled on at speeds of 60-80mph.
One of the presenters on this topic was Matt Franchak, Chief of Staff to State Senator Mike Stack. According to him, automated speed enforcement cameras are the answer to the issue of excessive speeding. PenTrans reports that fatalities and serious injuries on roads with automated speed enforcement have historically dropped by 10-50%.
In addition to adopting legislature to allow automated speed enforcement cameras, other presentations urged for the passing of primary seat belt legislation, an ignition interlock law for first-time DUI offenders, administrative license suspension laws for first-time DUI offenders, and extended nighttime driving restrictions and passenger restrictions for drivers under 18.
Would you like to see any of these laws go into effect in Pennsylvania? Write to your state legislators and let them know!
