Saunders, director of the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles’ highway safety office, discusses holiday road safety and some heartening statistics on highway fatalities, which have fallen 13 percent compared with the first 11 months of last year.
To what do you attribute this drop?
It’s a number of different things, it’s all coming together for us. We can’t leave out the issue of the economy being down, we think that might be playing an impact. In Virginia, our vehicle miles are about flat from last year. … We want to think that also the issues we’re dealing with [drive down fatalities]: We have great coordination with state and local law enforcement agencies; some highway safety initiatives like “Checkpoint Strikeforce” and “Click It or Ticket.” We’ve also recorded in 2009 a higher seat-belt use rate, at 82 percent. That translates into lives saved.
Why are more people wearing their seat belts?
I think the word is getting out, our public relations message that we get out to folks to buckle up. I think enforcement … is also playing a role in making those numbers go up.
Are you worried about a spike in fatalities around Christmas and New Year’s?
Historically that’s been the case. I looked at the numbers for the last 15 days of the last year, and we have 28 fatalities during that time. … This is a dangerous time of year on our highways, and we are asking everybody to be vigilant during this time, to drive safe, and to not drive distracted. Get off the cell phone. … And if you’re going to be going to holiday parties, we truly want you to get a designated driver and never drive impaired.
Do you believe the texting-while-driving ban could be bringing down road deaths?
Do not have the data at this point to say that. I believe that our message is out there that districted driving is really an issue. … I think we have a lot more work to do in that area.
— William C. Flook
