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25 vs 14 is still a big jump.
I agree with Lodestone. I get an email every time there is a fatality and it is remarkable the number of times it seems to involve a younger person doing something unexpected, like driving into a tree. Could be confirmtion bias but it remains a significant increase.
When I get in the car, the phone goes off. It can wait.
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Drove over the Saddle Road this morning, Hilo to Kona area, and saw three cops ticketing speeders. This. on the downhill part going toward Kona.
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And this is NOT where the the accidents/deaths are happening.
Priorities are really messed up.
1) Higher amounts of traffic on our highway and roads could lead to more accidents and fatalities.
2) Poor visibility due to lack of proper lighting along our roads and highway at night.
3) The many new road and intersection projects taking place recently around the island may take some time getting use to by the locals use to the old ways and speeds around the island. This coupled with the fact that more tourist drivers are using our roads daily than ever before is concerning.
The added pressure felt when driving our highway has increased a lot over the past decade or two, some intersections are now dreaded or feared while others are completely avoided at certain times of the day. 2 decades ago the highway was quiet and passing other vehicles was easy and fun to be quite honest, traffic and police presence was light to zilch. jmo
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This is a bit of a morbid thread, but I don't think you can conclude very much from the numbers, mainly because, as Lodestone says, of the small sample size. For instance, I looked at the traffic fatality rates for the Big Island since 2005. The average rate is 27 but the standard deviation is very large at 8, which tells you the number varies a great deal from year to year.
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because less than a dozen more people died in car crashes in last 365 days... iow no REAL reason.... common sense would tell you a car accident death is usually just random... I could die, you could die tomorrow
if it went from 141 to 255, thats more of a big deal... not just 11 more... 11 more deaths literally could be 3-4 more BAD accidents within 365 days over an area of 4 thousand sq miles...
the Big island is slightly over 4,000 square miles in size with many bad roads, and bad weather..., and boring long roads that you can drift off on.... ie an often used speedway of a hwy over a thousand feet higher than Denver CO. ......
you aint drifting off the field into a cow pasture like in many areas of mainland.. here its a bit more 'rough' ie drift 5' off the hwy at 65 mph in Kau desert and your prob dead when you hit that pahoehoe lined roadcut or a'a field and flip 3X landing upside down in rocks... or even a very hard Ohia tree... also many tourists dont watch the roads they looking at cool banana or travelers palm trees, sunsets, the volcano glow, or at Ali'i Dr. bikinis or trying to read hawaiian named road signs with 17 letters all starting w/ a K, L, P, or H, etc., they also dont know the road or the new rental car well too and are distracted by other shouting look at the nene etc....
ps if a local dies he prob drunk, tweeking, late to work/ speeding...
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save our indigenous and endemic Hawaiian Plants... learn about them, grow them, and plant them on your property, ....instead of all that invasive non-native garbage I see in most yards... aloha
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save our indigenous and endemic Hawaiian Plants... learn about them, grow them, and plant them on your property, ....instead of all that invasive non-native garbage I see in most yards... aloha
Once again, the most real world answer goes to Gypsy.
That and way less people posting on Punaweb so ....
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These are the raw data I used. Please feel free to check them as I got them from various sources, although mostly from the Hawaii police press releases:
Year Fatalities
2005 36
2006 33
2007 37
2008 27
2009 22
2010 27
2011 23
2012 38
2013 25
2014 11
2015 17
2016 30
They don't seem to support any conclusions about anything being different compared to a decade ago.
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It is strange tho, how 2014 was the lowest... I thought maybe gas prices might have something to do with it.
I think one of the biggest factor is, most people don't give a ****. They know that there are only a few cops out on the road, so if they drive around with no lic, insurance and a few drinks in them... No big deal, and if they get busted...... ? They will just get out of jail, and do it again. I've got friends that have driving like that for YEARS. Probably the percentage of people that drive around without insurance is larger than you think.
With little to no enforcement, the low odds of being caught, and virtually no jail time...because we can't afford to house the poor in jail. Cops know it's just a matter of time before Bob gets a new beater to get to da store for half rack every night after being busted.
I did a little experiment, I deliberately, 'forgot' to put my new registration sticker on my plate for a whole year. Drive to hilo 4/5 times daily, lot's of cops behind me... no problem. Cops don't have time to worry about minor problems. Bearly enough of them to push all the wrecks off the road. Maybe I'll try a whole year without a safety next?
Eric, I bet they just "see" the big safety one on the bumper first .... Try without it this year and see ...
LOL, tom/paul undermines his own thread.
Gypsy is still has most logical.
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"Gypsy is still has most logical." (sic)
By that reasoning fatalities should go up every year. Yet they don't.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/16/busine...ities.html
It'll be interesting to see the nationwide trend, that should be a big enough sample size.
