Texas 1995 Highway Satistics

[Luis Marques <marques@rtis.ray.com>]

I just took a defensive driving course last Saturday for the insurance
discount <knock,knock> and we were provided with some accident
statistics for the State of Texas for 1995 that I found interesting and
worth sharing with you bahnstorming folks.  

Very interesting that the #1 cause of accident is not "speed over the
limit", but "speed unsafe" (i.e. going too slow) - followed closely by
failure to yield.  They also just passed new laws here in the Lone Star
State that specifically make it unlawful to sit on the left lane.  Yes,
the police will start cracking down on those people that hog the left
lane doing 0.01 mph over the limit.  Left lane is, by law, for PASSING
ONLY.  [hurray!, bravo!]  They will also start cracking down on
tailgaters, since it is also a mayor source of "road rage" and could
result in serious accidents (read: I got pi**d of because he was
tailgating me so I slammed on the brakes...  ten car collision).  Also
worth noting was that the #1 cause of fatalities was drunk driving and
that people are just as likely to die if you are going too fast or going
too slow.

Luis Marques
'87 4kcsq


Accident Cause                            All   Fatal  Injury  No-injury
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Speeding over the limit                  10,028   560   6,151   3,317
Speed Unsafe (under limit)               98,451   510  58,516  31,990
Fail to yield row to vehicle             76,575   295  44,290  31,990
Disregard stop sign or light             10,661    71   6,725   3,865
Disregard stop and go signal             19,736   103  12,871   6,762
Improper turn-wide right                  2,206     1     784   1,421
Improper turn-cut corner on left            874     1     306     587
Improper turn-wrong lane                  4,992     6   2,177   2,809
Wrong side-not passing                    2,057   170   1,186     701
Wrong way-one way road                      699    40     390     269
Following too closely                    27,377    12  17,260  10,105
Overtake and pass-insufficient clearance    540     5     229     306
Pass in no passing zone                     814     9     406     399
Other illegal passing                     4,576    11   1,877   2,688
No signal or wrong signal of intention    1,544     1     722     821
Improper start from parked position       1,171     3     510     658
Fail to yield row to pedestrian             680     1     672       7
Improper parking                          1,537    16     749     772
Driving under influence (liquor)         30,686 1,018  18,335  11,333
Driving under influence (drugs)           1,231    90     746     395
Other violations                         70,157   602  33,465  36,090
                                        ------- ----- ------- -------
Total violations                        366,592 3,525 208,367 154,700