Bicycle Safety
Posted by: Claude Wyle
November 05, 2009
Topic: Bicycle Injuries
Sacramento ranks high in auto accidents, drunk driving
I was dismayed earlier this week when the California Office of Traffic Safety [OTS] released its yearly ranking of 13 cities of similar size, including Sacramento, Oakland and San Francisco, for collisions by daily vehicle miles traveled and average population.
The numbers for 2008 are not yet available, but for 2007, our great state's capital, Sacramento, ranked No. 1 in many categories related to auto collisions and drunk driving deaths and, extremely disturbing to us, bicycle injuries and fatalities. As Sacramento and Northern California personal injury attorneys, we hope that accountability will help deter this bad driving behavior and strive to make those guilty of causing drunk driving injuries fully accountable.
- For collisions with alcohol involved, Sacramento ranked first with 478 victims killed and injured.
- For collisions where the driver had been drinking (HBD) both under age 21 and ages 21 to 34, Sacramento came in first with a combined 214 victims killed and injured.
- Sacramento ranked first by population for total fatal and injury collisions with 4,404 victims killed and injured.
- Sacramento also ranked first for collisions involving bicyclists by population, speed-related collisions by population and nighttime collisions by population. Nighttime collisions were defined as occurring between 9 p.m. and 2:59 a.m.
