Deaths from traffic accidents affect Latino and black communities in much more unequal percentages than diseases such as cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg recently asserted that there is "
a national crisis of deaths and serious injuries on our highways."
These types of accidents are on the rise, according to a report by The New York Times, which states that inequality among those who die has increased in recent years.
On average, 115 people are killed on America's roads every day.
The reasons for the increase in accidents are not clear, according to the aforementioned publication.
Scene of a traffic accident.Getty Images
The Department for Transport indicates that 9,560 people died in traffic accidents in the first quarter of 2022. This represents an increase of approximately 7% compared to the same quarter of 2021.
The specialists quoted by the newspaper explain the increase due to the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, which also affected less favored communities and Latino and black people more.
According to the newspaper, the impact on mental health due to isolation, which has led to drug and alcohol abuse in general, is a determining factor at the time of accidents.
[This man ran his car over a crowd in Times Square. He said that he "wanted to kill them all." But he won't go to prison]
"(Drivers) are a little less regulated: They may not take consequences into account," Kira Mauseth, a clinical psychologist at Seattle University, told the publication.
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Regarding inequality, the experts consulted by The New York Times assure that many wealthier people continue to work at home and low-income communities have to travel in their vehicles, several of which are old models.
In addition,
lower-income neighborhoods are often traversed by major highways.
immediate solutions
Specialists agree that the measures that reinforce the application of the law and prevention are the ideal ones to end the crisis of traffic accidents.
"Making the streets safer does not require designing new solutions in laboratories," John Rennie Short, of the University of Maryland, told the newspaper.
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Meanwhile, New York City announced Tuesday that it has equipped 50 city vehicles with an Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) program that forces the car to abide by regulations.
ISA software
signals the
vehicle and immediately limits speed when necessary.
The city is the first to launch this program in the United States.
The European Union ordered to equip new vehicles with this
software
to reduce accidents and all cars in 2024 must have ISA.
