Letter to the Editor

The most severe problem facing the citizens of the United States today, the greatest threat to public safety, and one of the most dire, unbelievable catastrophes in history continues, unabated; and the death toll is rising. Forty-one thousand, nine hundred and seven people were killed by automobiles in 1996, up from the year before; and 3,511,000 were injured. A disaster of this magnitude needs immediate and drastic action.

The simple act of transporting my child to school or the library or to visit relatives has become like an act out of a violent horror story. We as citizens are responsible. We must hold the government accountable, at the federal, state, and local level. Write them, informing them of your concern; monitor their voting record on issues of public transportation, automobile safety measures, traffic law, and funds for law enforcement of traffic violations , and vote accordingly.

Let the automobile industry know, with your voice and with your wallet, that our lives, our children's lives, are more important than their profit margin, encourage them to take the steps necessary to make automobiles safe. Forty-one thousand , nine hundred and seven lives should not be an acceptable standard in determining that cars and trucks are safe enough. Redesign is what is called for, instead of band-aid measures, and tooth and nail fights to reduce or limit safety standards to decrease their costs, and advertising campaigns that play to our worst impulses, and building more and more large vehicles, appealing to our instinct for self-preservation which in turn increases the death toll as these larger and heavier vehicles share the road with smaller, more vulnerable vehicles.

Appeal to the media to report what is truly important to all of us, what the real dangers are, perhaps with regular features, reporting accident data, status of laws and the stands of proponents and opponents, auto industry efforts to apply, or discourage, true safety standards, and reports on law enforcement efforts in combating unsafe driving and preventing disasters and, perhaps most important, use their forum to educate us in what safe driving measures are.

Encourage law enforcement officials and officers to apply their resources where the data declares they belong, in the enforcement of traffic safety, and to treat unsafe driving as the criminal act that it is.

These and other measures are critical if we wish the death, injury, and phenomenal taxpayer property loss to cease, but the government, the heads of the automobile industry and its subsidiaries, and the media will take action only if we let them know loudly and unceasingly that we are outraged and won't stand for it. But the most important thing we can do as citizens who care for life over greed or speed is to recognize the great responsibility of piloting 3000 to 5000 pounds of steel down a roadway upon which lives are dependent upon you and your actions.

Think, when the need to hurry arises: is it worth risking someone else's, a child's, life? Obey the speed limits, maintain a safe distance from other vehicles, don't weave in and out of traffic in what will be a futile, and possibly fatal, effort to save a few minutes or seconds, and drive especially cautiously in residential areas, or areas where children and other pedestrians are vulnerable. Of the 5412 pedestrians and 761 pedalcyclists killed by automobiles in 1996, 666 of the pedestrians killed were children, and 223 of the pedalcyclists killed were children (0 to 14 years).

Our lives, my child's life, is in each of our hands when we are behind the wheel. Please, vow to be careful.

J. Holland
144 Crestview Rd.
Columbus Ohio 43202