Comments on: States Resist Highway Safety Measures https://national.news21.com Just another WordPress site Sat, 25 Jun 2011 17:21:35 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: John Lin https://national.news21.com/2010-2/states-resist-highway-safety-laws-ntsb#comment-99 John Lin Mon, 27 Sep 2010 20:47:51 +0000 https://national.news21.com/?page_id=458#comment-99 Did anyone even get a purely uninvolved perspective of the data? Was anyone besides a federal agency that is funded based upon its size, and two special interest groups consulted? The federal government coerced Montana to adopt speed limits on its interstates. You have the data. You made a little interactive map. Please point out the lives saved. Seatbelts and helmets save lives. However, having seen both those that wore helmets and those not admitted to a level 1 trauma center, I think one could make a legitimate argument that it is better NOT to wear one. When doctors make mistakes, they have Mortality AND Morbidity reviews. People make choices that get them killed all the time. Nicotine is a bigger killer than neglecting seatbelts. This should be contrasted with alcohol consumption, in which one person's irresponsibility kills someone ELSE. Yet, this article focused on public policy for enforcing an issue of PERSONAL responsibility. The media's responsibility is to educate the public. Please educate them as to how many of those fatalities are interstate accidents versus how many are people running redlights in intersections and running over kids in school zones. A blogger can summarize the synopsis of a NHTSA report. A journalist should go deeper. Did anyone even get a purely uninvolved perspective of the data? Was anyone besides a federal agency that is funded based upon its size, and two special interest groups consulted?

The federal government coerced Montana to adopt speed limits on its interstates. You have the data. You made a little interactive map. Please point out the lives saved.

Seatbelts and helmets save lives. However, having seen both those that wore helmets and those not admitted to a level 1 trauma center, I think one could make a legitimate argument that it is better NOT to wear one. When doctors make mistakes, they have Mortality AND Morbidity reviews. People make choices that get them killed all the time. Nicotine is a bigger killer than neglecting seatbelts. This should be contrasted with alcohol consumption, in which one person’s irresponsibility kills someone ELSE. Yet, this article focused on public policy for enforcing an issue of PERSONAL responsibility.

The media’s responsibility is to educate the public. Please educate them as to how many of those fatalities are interstate accidents versus how many are people running redlights in intersections and running over kids in school zones. A blogger can summarize the synopsis of a NHTSA report. A journalist should go deeper.

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