This year, make Austin roads safer
Last year was an especially deadly year on Austin roads, with at least 80 traffic fatalities – 17 more deaths than the average recorded over the dozen years from 2000 to 2011.
Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo doesn’t want to see 2012’s tragic toll repeated this year. He recently announced he was putting in place measures that he hopes reduces the number of traffic fatalities in 2013, and he expressed support for other possible actions.
While law enforcement officials do what they can to try to reduce the number of traffic fatalities, we urge Austin drivers to do their part, too. Rare is the traffic accident that isn’t preventable, that isn’t caused by someone’s carelessness.
As the American-Statesman’s Claudia Grisales reported last week, Acevedo wants to put more police officers to work patrolling traffic, and he wants to assign more officers to areas known to have a high risk for accidents. Acevedo said he has also told his officers to write more tickets and issue fewer warnings.
We were surprised to learn that the number of traffic tickets issued each fiscal year by Austin police officers has decreased sharply over the past three years, from 264,428 in 2009 to 133,852 in 2012, as reported by the AmericanStatesman’s Dave Harmon and Tony Plohetski. Put another way, 358 fewer tickets per day were written in fiscal 2012, which ended Sept. 30, than were written in 2009.
Acevedo sees at least a partial correlation between 2012’s increased traffic death toll and the police department’s reduced enforcement of traffic laws and thinks stricter enforcement will lead to fewer fatal accidents. Writing more traffic tickets may or may not lead to more careful driving by Austin residents, but the nearly 50 percent drop in the number of tickets written from 2009 to 2012 reinforces Acevedo’s call for a greater focus on traffic enforcement.
The police chief also would like to see the courts punish drivers who fail to stop and render aid or who violate certain other traffic laws with stiffer penalties, and he said he would back efforts by state lawmakers to pass new legislation that toughen traffic laws.
Meanwhile, Grisales reported, Acevedo is planning to hold a “traffic summit” this month with law enforcement counterparts in Travis, Williamson and Hays counties to explore steps the area’s police and sheriff’s departments can take jointly to improve traffic safety and reduce traffic deaths.
It’s an all-too-tragic reality that alcohol plays a role in so many traffic deaths. At least 32 of last year’s 80 deaths involved alcohol, according to Austin police, with test results pending on another 13 acci- dents.
We encourage reasonable efforts to reduce the number of traffic fatalities. At the same time, we note that one year, as bad as it was, stands without context if looked at alone. Taking into account the city’s population growth and increased traffic over the past decade, the number of fatalities per capita in 2012 is significantly lower than in 2000, when the city’s population was about 656,500. Austin’s population today is more than 824,000.
The 77 traffic fatalities recorded in 2000 were almost equaled the next year when Austin recorded 76 traffic fatalities. The five-year stretch from 2000 to 2004 was especially deadly, with 349 traffic deaths.
The number of deaths then declined to 61 in 2005 and until last year had remained below 65, averaging 58 a year from 2005 to 2011.
Any number is too high. Drive responsibly and safely. Drive with awareness and with your attention on the road.
Let’s make 2012 a tragic aberration, not the beginning of a deadly trend.