Oso planning to go pro
From the NYT morning news:Traffic deaths are surging during the pandemic.‘Social disengagement’The United States is enduring its most severe increase in traffic deaths since the 1940s.It is a sharp change from the recent norm, too. Deaths from vehicle crashes have generally been falling since the late 1960s, thanks to vehicle improvements, lower speed limits and declines in drunken driving, among other factors. By 2019, the annual death rate from crashes was near its lowest level since cars became a mass item in the 1920s.But then came the Covid-19 pandemic.Crashes — and deaths — began surging in the summer of 2020, surprising traffic experts who had hoped that relatively empty roads would cause accidents to decline. Instead, an increase in aggressive driving more than made up for the decline in driving. And crashes continued to increase when people returned to the roads, later in the pandemic.Per capita vehicle deaths rose 17.5 percent from the summer of 2019 to last summer, according to a Times analysis of federal data. It is the largest two-year increase since just after World War II.This grim trend is another way that two years of isolation and disruption have damaged life, as this story — by my colleague Simon Romero, who’s a national correspondent — explains. People are frustrated and angry, and those feelings are fueling increases in violent crime, customer abuse of workers, student misbehavior in school and vehicle crashes.“We’re seeing erratic behavior in the way people are acting and their patience levels,” Albuquerque’s police chief, Harold Medina, told Simon. “Everybody’s been pushed. This is one of the most stressful times in memory.”Art Markman, a cognitive scientist at the University of Texas at Austin, said that the emotions partly reflected “two years of having to stop ourselves from doing things that we’d like to do.” He added: “When you get angry in the car, it generates energy — and how do you dissipate that energy? Well, one way is to put your foot down a little bit more on the accelerator.”Rising drug abuse during the pandemic seems to play an important role, as well. The U.S. Department of Transportation has reported that “the proportion of drivers testing positive for opioids nearly doubled after mid-March 2020, compared to the previous 6 months, while marijuana prevalence increased by about 50 percent.” (Mid-March 2020 is when major Covid mitigations began.)Other factors besides the pandemic also affect traffic deaths, of course. But those other factors tend to change slowly — and often counteract each other. Improving technology and safety features reduce traffic deaths, while the growing size of vehicles and the rise of distracted driving lead to more deaths. The only plausible explanation for most of the recent surge is the pandemic.
time to put those cars in jail and sue them for everything they have. Damn out of control killer cars.I like how the opioid crisis is just buried in there and fentanyl is ignored. No, no issues with either high drivers or record numbers of addicts on the street living on the streets.
time to put those cars in jail and sue them for everything they have. Damn out of control killer cars.
I like how the opioid crisis is just buried in there and fentanyl is ignored. No, no issues with either high drivers or record numbers of addicts on the street living on the streets.
Yes, there are no articles to be found about the opioid crisis anywhere.
What's an opioid?
You’re cute, just like pops, posting from your head firmly lodged up your pretty boy.
Many colleges & universities are looking at ways to sensibly unwind Covid restrictions over the next few weeks. UW System is mapping a way to be completely maskless by the end of spring break.
Three total kids in preschool today, 10 days after dropping masks. School bus for the second grader has been 15 minutes early all week.
Because kids got Covid? Teachers got it? Parents declined to send their kids?
Doesn’t sound like too much COVID, just general coughs, colds and runny noses that are zero tolerance. As they should be.Masks though, worked.
I'm pro vaccine. I think the Canadian truck driver complaints are a bit excessive and dramatic. That being said, the Canadian governments retaliation financially as of yesterday and today is kind of scary.
The truck drivers retaliation to the mandate has been financial terrorism. Putting people out of work is more than 'dramatic'. Their goal was/is to hurt business & industry in both Canada and the US. Why shouldn't the Canadian gov't respond in kind.
Civil disobedience is financial terrorism?