Have you heard about the latest blockbuster movie that has “smashed” box office sales records? It doesn’t matter which movie, the point isn’t the movie it’s the way we trumpet statistics and confuse and mislead others with their meaning. The price of movie is going up and has gone up significantly. I am in my early 40s. When I was in high school, I could see an evening movie for $4.50. When I was in college and in a larger city, I paid $7.00 or more for a ticket. Now it’s $12.00+ for most movies. Of course movies are grossing more money but are they selling more tickets?
With that statistical illustration out of the way, I want to congratulate the U.S. Department of Transportation for their transparency and accuracy and I want to congratulate all the truck drivers out there for their part in making this era the safest yet.
In 2012, traffic fatality rates fell to historic lows. Our roadways saw just 1.14 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. In 2013, that number fell even lower to 1.10 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. Passenger vehicles, large trucks, motorcycles, and pedestrians all saw declines in crash-related fatalities.
That quote was pulled from the U.S. DOT’s Fast Lane blog.
I love that they aren’t counting actual fatalities because as our population grows that number will probably continue to rise even as the rate of deaths falls. Unlike the movie illustration at the beginning of this post the DOT is reporting statistics accurately.
The blog goes on to pat themselves on the back,
In fact, since 2004, road fatalities have dropped 25 percent. And since this Department’s founding, the United States has seen the motor vehicle fatality rate drop by 80 percent.
I think the DOT deserves a lot of credit, but I want to make sure I highlight truck drivers who log tens of thousands of miles per year (some estimates suggest the average truck driver logs 130,000 miles/year). Since the average “civilian” driver logs probably 10-15% of that, highway safety depends predominantly on the truck drivers. And thus since we’re living in such a safe time, they/you now deserve a lot of credit.
Kudos, ladies and gentlemen!