Safety First

I was checking out the Federal Statistics portal and reading through the Dept. of Transportation's Bus numbers.

Did you know that in the last 20 years (1990-2010) while the number of buses and commercial trucks almost doubled from 6.8 million to 11.6 million, the number of crashes & numbers of trucks and buses involved in crashes & people injured in those crashes in 2010 have fallen to better than half from 1990?

AND a huge portion of those injuries are a result of movement during the accident, not because of the accident.
I was reading here that because public transportation has no seat belts, that because folks are walking around, changing seats, not paying attention, standing up, etc - that these behaviours contribute to injury during accidents.

Ever ridden the Mall Shuttle?
We have to hit our brakes, heck we have to stand on our brakes at least once per round trip.
And y'all in the back know what that's like even when you are paying attention, holding onto a rail and already packed in like sardines in a can.
You suddenly get to know your fellow passengers much more intimately!

The news loves to sensationalize all the accidents involving RTD vehicles.
But the facts are that those numbers are falling.
And the number of times RTD is hit far far outweighs those in which RTD hits.

Yes, every accident is a tragedy but c'mon...there are fewer tragedies these days than there were just two decades ago.
Heck, there are buses out there that old!
And many of you aren't even that old to begin with.

Anywho, I was just noticing that it's getting pretty danged safe on our roads.

As Always, "Welcome aboard, Find your seats, Buckle Up for safety - Let's Roll!"