http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1819594_1819592_
1819582,00.html
6. Fewer Traffic Deaths
Every year, about 40,000 people die in traffic accidents in the U.S. If
you
are age 5 through 34, you are more likely to die this way than any other
way. Ordinary things we do — or don't do — have extraordinary
consequences.
We know that higher gas prices cause many of us to slow down and drive
less
— which means fewer people die. Early research into 2006 accident data
suggests that many lives have already been spared. If gas remains at $4
per
gal. for a year or more, expect as many as 1,000 fewer fatalities a month,
according to professor Michael Morrisey at the University of Alabama at
Birmingham and associate professor David Grabowski at Harvard Medical
School, who calculated that estimate for TIME. That means annual deaths
could be cut by almost one-third — a public-health triumph.
--------------------------------
Even i think the 12,000 estimate is too high though it would be entirely
feasible if speed limits were lowered and enforced with stiff penalties.
But the idiot american says "Hell with preventing 12,000 highway deaths.
We
need to worry about 100 people dying in a terrorist attack."
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