Why so many fatal car wrecks? (Austin, Center: live in, dangerous, statistics)

[jwb123]

The Austin area, and surrounding suburbs have SO MANY fatal car wrecks. I read about them every morning it seems, in the paper.

Why do you think this is?

[js63]

My non-scientific opinion is it's due to people yapping on their cell phones when they should be paying attention to the road.I don't know how many times while crossing the street I've almost been run over by a chatty driver.

[gigi927]

Darn frontage roads and not being in the right lane when you need to be.

[love roses]

People don't know how to slow down! Just even a little bit...PLEASE!!!

[jwb123]

What about police patrol?

I see a lot of these (though, I wouldn't say half...) are alcohol related. Are the laws not particularly tough here on drinking and driving? Does TX have an open container law?

[Trainwreck20]

A while back, I read something about I-35 over Town Lake being the busiest section of interstate per lane by weight during a 24-hour period. Now, before you tell me the busier interstates, there are three points that are significant: 1) it is by weight, and that section has a huge amount of semi's on it, 2) it is during a 24-hour period, and that section has huge trucks day and night, and 3) it is per lane, and there are only three lanes (?) on that section.

I think that the constant heavy traffic mixed with the local commuters and transient traffic create a lot of problems, as well as the split/convergence areas and the pschotic lower level. I also think most of the serious accidents occur on I-35. A doctor once told a friend of mine who was moving from CA to TX that the best way to increase her life expectancy in Austin was to stay off I-35 .

[love roses]

I live in Williamson County, and they are very strict with driving drunk. So if you come through here drunk, or even buzzed, be very careful.

[brattpowered]

I think it may have something to do with Austin having the worst drivers in the land, IMO. If they aren't pulling out in front of you (when there are several open lanes available), they are chatting on their phones, going 5 or 95 mph in the ice/rain/clouds, attempting to ford creeks in their sedans, crossing over multiple lanes to exit, etc, etc, ad nauseum.

[Trainwreck20]

Eh, travel all over for work, and the bad drivers are now ubiquitous. I think that drivers everywhere are worse than they used to be. Somewhat due to cell phones, somewhat due to traffic increase, a good portion due to a feeling of entitlement on the highway. Don't think it explains fatalities in wrecks locally, though, being higher than anywhere else....not really sure they are worse....

Edit:
From DOT and National Center for Statistics and Analysis (for 2005)
Fatal Crashes: 39,189
Fatalities: 43,443
Fatalities per 100 million miles: 1.47
Fatalities per 100,000 people: 14.66
Fatalities per 100,000 vehicles: 18.00 (2004 data)

Fatalities per mile increased for the first time in 2005 since the records are listed (going back to 1994). It went up from 1.47 from 1.45. In 1994 it was 1.73.

I dont see any specific data for different cities or states...may have to look for them later....

Edit2: I found a 2002 report saying that Austin has a rate of 14.2 fatalities per 100,000 people, but the I do not know how the report was complied, it appears that it uses a different basis. It says Austin is in the top 10 cities for fatalities, and cites three reasons that seem to be common to all the high fatality locations: tourism, rapid growth, and warm weather (I guess lots of pedestrians and cyclists). Orlando was the highest with 17.4 per 100,000 people.

[lolligrump]

One of the reasons I think is that the roads in Austin are VERY slippery when wet. I'm not talking just rain or icy conditions, but even sprinkler's can make the roadway dangerous I slid around many times, and thankfully never had a crash, but I can understand how it happens so easily. It seems the roads in the other states I have lived in, (AZ, CA, TX and Now NC), might consist of a different material since I've never had the problem of sliding around before or since Austin, except of course, when there is ice on the road. Even then I feel I have more control of the sliding everywhere else but Austin.