There is one benefit to gasoline prices reaching nearly $4 a gallon: The rate of traffic accidents, including drink-driving accidents, goes down as gas prices go up.
These were the findings in a study by Mississippi State University's Social Science Research Center, which "analyzed total traffic crashes between April 2004 and December 2008, comparing gas prices to traffic safety statistics," research reporting service Newswise reports. SSRC demographer Guangquing Chi looked at factors including age, gender and race.
"The results suggest that prices have both short-term and intermediate-term effects on reducing traffic crashes," Chi said. The short-term impact involves younger drivers. Intermediate-term impact is related to older drivers and men. Short-term impact "refers to immediate effects, for example how a current month's average gasoline prices affect the same month's traffic crashes. Intermediate-term impact refers to effects over a one-year subsequent time period," Newswise reports. (Read more)
Oh, THAT is just great. If fuel prices rose so high that none of us could drive at all, then the death rate from traffic accidents would drop to zero. Unfortunately, we'd all freeze and starve in the dark before too long, because many goods could not be made, and no goods could be brought to market.
ReplyDeleteFor those of us who still have some common sense, there IS something we all can do about Obama's fuel price fiasco. It starts with putting the blame exactly where it belongs, on Obama and his administration, and keeping it there.
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