EDITORIAL: Slow down before you kill someone

Jan. 22--You, dear reader, are armed and dangerous. You don't think about that because you have places to go and people to see. So you take off with one of the most ubiquitous and volatile weapons in American society: the automobile.

You don't expect to crash. No one does. After all, you're a good driver. Who cares if you go a bit over the speed limit, or whip around that slow vehicle even though you're in a no-passing zone? You have reflexes, quick ones. You always maintain your focus on the road (except, of course, when you're watching the scenery, using your phone, reaching for your coffee, arguing with a passenger, telling the kids to stay on their side, thinking about work, feeling a bit drowsy ...).

Millions of drivers think the same things, yet somehow crashes happen every day, including 3,304 fatal crashes in California in 2017.

Throughout the United States that year, crashes killed more than 37,000 people. Speeding contributed to more than one-fourth of those fatalities, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

We in Sonoma County know that first-hand. Speed factored into two fatal crashes recently on two-lane Occidental Road west of Santa Rosa. Speeding is so pervasive that some neighbors have made family pacts to avoid the road.

Occidental Road is not unique. Speed-related fatalities occur on rural roads more than anywhere else. Those byways are not engineered for freeway speeds, but their layouts often invite them.

While drunken driving, distracted driving and sleepy driving occupy the traffic-safety headlines, speeding remains the killer less talked about. The proportion of speed-related fatalities has stayed virtually constant for more than 15 years. Speed increases the likelihood and severity of crashes because drivers have less time to react, less distance to break and much more force behind them in the crash.

We'll spare you the scientific formulas and statistics. Besides, you know that today's vehicles -- with their airbags, seatbelts and impact-absorbing designs -- are infinitely safer than those of yore, so you've no need for science.

But consider this:

"In a high-speed crash, a passenger vehicle is subjected to forces where the structure of the vehicle cannot withstand the force of the crash and maintain survival space within the occupant compartment of the vehicle. In addition, in high speed crashes, restraint systems such as airbags and safety belts are incapable of minimizing these higher levels of force."

Those bureaucratic but chilling words are from a Governors Highway Traffic Association report released this month.

Yet many Californians, including politicians who are in a hurry like everyone else, treat speeding as normal. California even has a perverse law that encourages higher speeds. It says law enforcement cannot use radar or other electronics to nab speeders unless a city conducts regular traffic surveys and subsequently raises the speed limit if most drivers are exceeding it.

That law eludes logic. To state the obvious, "Research shows that when speed limits are raised, speeds go up, as do fatal crashes," according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

We know you're a good driver. Slow down anyway. If you won't do it for yourself, do it for your family. Do it for your friends. Do it for the rest of us.

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