Traffic deaths in Kern down over three decades
| Saturday, Jan 30 2010 12:00 PM
Last Updated Saturday, Jan 30 2010 12:00 PM
Facts about traffic deaths
Kern population --400,000 in 1980; 800,000-plus in 2008
State population -- 24.8 million in 1980; 38.1 million in 2008
Vehicle miles traveled in California -- 160 billion in 1980; 326 billion in 2008
Primary collision factors for fatal crashes in California:
Alcohol, 22.6 percent
Improper turning (rollover) 18.7 percent
Speeding, 16.7 percent
Pedestrian violation, 11.3 percent
Wrong side of road, 6.5 percent
Automobile right of way (such as running a red light) 6.1 percent.
Since 1980, Kern County's population has doubled and the miles traveled by vehicles in California have more than doubled. That could mean there's a better chance of getting killed on the road.
Yet traffic deaths per year in Kern fell by nearly half during the past three decades.
And 2008 represented the state's lowest traffic death rate in history, about one-third of what it was 30 years ago.
Furthermore, alcohol-related traffic deaths -- the single largest cause of fatal accidents -- were down more than 50 percent in 2008 in Kern from just two years ago.
Why? Over time, through education, people are driving more safely, doctors are saving more of those who get in accidents, and both vehicles and roads have been better engineered to avoid crashes and offer better protection in wrecks, experts said.
The education, especially in recent years, includes high-profile enforcement efforts to nab traffic violators as well as more media coverage and civic group activism on the consequences of drunken driving.
A historical perspective over the last 60 years is very dramatic. The California Highway Patrol keeps track of the Mileage Death Rate, or the number of persons killed per 100 million miles of motor vehicle travel.
The worst year was 1945 when California's rate was 14.8. It steadily improved over the decades to 1.04 in 2008, the best year ever, the CHP reported.
Safer roads, safer equipment
Since the 1940s, vehicles have been made safer with seat belts, child seats, air bags, anti-lock brakes (to keep control) and engineering features to give more protection for head-on or side impact crashes, said Lt. Scott McDonald, commander of the Bakersfield Police Department's traffic division.
"People are walking away now from crashes that 15 years ago would have been fatal," McDonald said.
Roads have also improved with wider lanes, more lanes, better shoulders, curve banking, reflective paint and reflectors, guard rails and center dividers, CHP spokesman Robert Rodriguez said.
Additionally, a traffic analysis unit in Bakersfield reports any crashes so the city's engineering staff can determine if any signals, signs and other roadway issues need to be improved, McDonald said. Police also focus patrols on crash problem areas, he said.
Saving trauma victims
But accidents do happen and sometimes it's the doctors who save patients with better equipment and procedures than were available in the past.
In the last 10 years, the lives of trauma patients have been saved with improved surgeries, better management in intensive care units and designated trauma centers such as Kern Medical Center, according to Dr. Maureen Martin, KMC's surgery chairman.
Patients who come directly to KMC have a four times greater chance at survival than if they go to other hospitals first to be stabilized and then brought to KMC, she said.
KMC, a designated trauma center since 2002, has a team of four general surgeons, three orthopedic surgeons and a neurosurgeon, Martin said. It sees about 3,000 trauma patients a year; three-fourths of them are accident victims, she said.
The California Highway Patrol, which keeps detailed statistics from all police agencies on crashes, reported 2008 had the fewest traffic deaths in Kern County in recent history.
While it was routine in the 1980s to have more than 200 traffic deaths a year in Kern County, those were reduced to an average of 157 a year since 2000 and only 114 in 2008, coroner and CHP records show.
Alcohol-related deaths
Alcohol-involved traffic collisions and deaths dropped to 23 and 37, respectively, in 2008, also the lowest that they've been in recent years.
In the last three years, grants from the California Office of Traffic Safety for extra patrols, checkpoints and education have made a difference, McDonald and Rodriguez said.
Publicity follows those activities to increase awareness of drunken driving and crackdowns to arrest offenders.
"People are more aware of the danger of drunken driving and more aware of the cost and consequences of being arrested for DUI," McDonald said.
Bakersfield has an award-winning Life Interrupted program that reached more than 50,000 people -- mostly high school and junior high students -- in each of the last two years, McDonald said. The gut-wrenching program features local mothers who have lost teens in crashes.
The CHP's popular Start Smart traffic safety program reaches out to first-time drivers, Rodriguez said.
Civic organizations and Mothers Against Drunken Driving have also contributed to the awareness of alcohol or drug-impaired driving, the officers said.
"All we can do is go out there and do our best to enforce the laws and educate people, and hope for the best," Rodriguez said.
