FHP - More cars, gizmos, distractions causing record number of traffic deaths

Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles

Published on Monday, January 2, 2006
in the Naples Daily News - 1/2/06

More cars, gizmos, distractions causing record number of traffic deaths

Ask Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott what he feels is the biggest problem in Lee County, and he’ll answer with little hesitation.

It’s a problem bigger than robberies or assaults. Bigger than vandalism and drugs. And it’s problem Scott says is most preventable.

“Traffic deaths continue to be the No. 1 and most discouraging concern right now,” Scott said. “We’re killing a record amount of people.”

The past year was easily the most deadly year on record in Lee County. Unofficial numbers showed 148 people died on county roads, well above the 108 killed in 2004, and 27 more than the record of 121, set in 2003.

The year seemed to feature fatality after fatality, with each bringing more attention to the need to do something, said Sgt. Robert Forrest, of the Sheriff Office’s traffic unit.

Two-thousand five started off with a deadly streak. In the first two weeks of the year, 11 people had died on county roads, including five in a single Jan. 12 accident.

From there, things did not get much better. The county hit 50 in early April. By the time August rolled around 100 people had died. And in October the county hit 122 deaths, surpassing its mark for most deaths in a year. The last two months were quieter, but not without a fair share of deaths, including a mid-December accident on U.S. 41 that claimed the lives of four local teenagers.

Lee County isn’t alone in the increase in deaths. As of mid-December the state had nearly 3,350 traffic deaths, up from the record of 3,257 in 2004. Additionally, statistics from the Florida Highway patrol show that 38 of the state’s 67 counties had already matched or surpassed last year’s death totals by mid-December.

Officials are attributing the high number of deaths to a number of factors. The most obvious, says Forrest, is that the county and state is increasing in population. And with more people, come more cars, and more opportunities for accidents. But on top of that, Forrest said, drivers are not being as careful as they can be. Cell phones, GPS systems, stereos, children in the car and even daydreaming are causing people to lose focus during a time when they should be paying the most attention.

Crowded roads

The matter of increased traffic is possibly the easiest thing to look at when breaking down traffic trends, said Steve Jansen, traffic engineer with the Lee County Department of Transportation.

Once officials statistics come though, Lee County roads are expected to be about 18 or 19 million miles traveled a day, Jansen said. Miles traveled are calculated using gasoline sales from gas stations. In recent years the number has nearly doubled. In 2000, Lee County roads were seeing only 10.4 million miles a day.

Going hand in hand with those statistics are the number of traffic accidents. In 2000, the county had 11,700 accidents, Jansen said. By 2004, that number was up to 14,100. The most recent figures for 2005 show 13,900 accidents up to mid-November.

When accidents are looked at that way they are not as big of a problem as they seem, Jansen said. In fact, the accident per million miles rate dropped from 3.1 in 2000 to 2.2 in 2004.

The increase in drivers is forcing an increase in construction projects, which might also be a factor in additional accidents, said Frank Penela, spokesman for the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

According to the Florida Department of Transportation, 116 motorists died in construction zones in 2004, said Marcia Lynch, FDOT safety management systems coordinator. Of those 116, five were in Lee County. Those crashes were related to driver error, she said.

Cracking down

As traffic deaths increase, an onus is put of law enforcement to do something, said Lt. Greg Bueno, of the Florida Highway Patrol. Speeding, reckless and impaired drivers still are on the roads causing many accidents, Bueno said.

It’s not for a lack of diligence, either. Both the Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Highway Patrol have increased patrols and citations this years.

This year, the Sheriff’s Office is issuing 45 percent more traffic citations than in 2004, when it issued 32,589. The FHP also is issuing more tickets, Bueno said. In six months the FHP’s new Community Response Team has issued more than 12,000 citations in Lee and Collier counties. Those initiatives are coupled with nationwide crackdowns such as Click It or Ticket and Drink You Drive, You Lose.

Public responsibility

Attentiveness, however, is the one thing citations can’t be issued for, and it’s the biggest factor in accidents, Penela said.

“We’re doing what we can do. We try to educate on a regular basis, but we just need people to use common sense on the road,” Penela said. “If people just use common sense we’d have safer roads in Florida.”

People become too accustomed to eating, talking on the phone, applying makeup, and doing other things that distract them from driving, Forrest said. Those slight distractions can lead to a lapse in split-second decisions, he added.

And it’s not just a matter of paying attention to what you are doing, Forrest said. Drivers need to pay attention around them, as well.

The Sheriff’s Office is making traffic diligence one of its biggest concerns in 2006. More crackdowns, and citations will be issued, and Scott said he hopes to reduce the traffic deaths in the new year.

“Any driver that dies is one too many,” Scott said.

In Collier County, the number of traffic-related deaths was the same in 2005 as it was in 2004 — 57.

Although the Florida Highway Patrol has yet to determine how many of the traffic fatalities were related to drunk driving, spokesman Lt. Darren Sapp warned residents to be extra cautious of impaired drivers during the holiday season.

“The big thing, as always, is don’t drink and drive, especially on a weekend synonymous with parties like New Year’s,” he said. “When you pull out on the road, take an extra second to look and be observant of your environment.”

One crash that attracted the attention of the East Naples community was a Checker Cab crash on June 26 that killed a pair of veterans and seriously injured their driver.

The roommates, Army veteran George Corbly, 63, and Navy veteran Gerry Bowerman, 64, both of Naples, were killed in the crash while en route to AMVETS Post 23, a private veterans’ bar in East Naples.

The cab, driven by Checker Cab employee Ronald Harris, 35, smashed into a tree on Shadowlawn Drive, just south of Davis Boulevard.

Investigators determined the crash was caused by a medical condition suffered by Harris.

Traffic fatalities in Lee County

2000: 103

2001: 113

2002: 71

2003: 121

2004: 108

2005: 148*

(* Unofficial through 12/30/05)

Traffic fatalities in Florida

2000: 2,999