Speeders and Day-Dreamers Driving Up Accident Rate

We had another informal neighborhood get-together Wednesday night. A bunch of people congregated on the street corner around 8 p.m. and watched as tow trucks hauled away a couple cars and police interviewed witnesses and swept glass out of the intersection. I was out for a walk and got there late, but a man who lives in an apartment building near the corner said someone apparently ran a red light and slammed into another car.

“It happens about once a week,” he said matter-of-factly. “Usually, we hear the brakes and then wait to hear the crash. This time, we didn’t hear any brakes.”

Until recently, I might not have given the accident much thought. Like the Rainman, I’m a very good driver, so traffic safety has not been a prime concern. I hadn’t been in an accident since I was 19 years old, and that was on a country highway.

Then, three weeks ago, someone ran a red light as I was running a green light. We crashed, and my car was totaled. The accident happened just a block from the one Wednesday night.

Traffic safety suddenly is very much on my mind.

To get a statistical perspective, I polled a few police departments.

* Huntington Beach reported 240 accidents in July, bringing the yearly total to 1,615. About one-third of those involved injuries.

* Brea/Yorba Linda reported 289 accidents the first six months of the year, with 90 involving injuries.

* Anaheim reported 452 accidents for July, with a little more than half causing injuries.

* Fullerton typically has about 150 accidents a month, with about one-third resulting in injuries.

* Tustin has about 35 to 40 a month.

* Santa Ana averages about 270 a month.

Traffic accidents are a vexing problem for police, because unless there is wanton alcohol abuse involved, the culprits are generally law-abiding people.

“There’s kind of a misconception as to how dangerous that 3-to-4,000-pound vehicle is going down the roadway,” said Brea Police Cpl. Walter McIntyre. “There’s a little phrase we have around here, ‘Speed Shatters Lives,’ and people don’t realize that.”

Excess speed is the No. 1 cause of traffic accidents, McIntyre said, an opinion echoed by officers at other departments. McIntyre said one national study indicates that speed-related crashes cost the country $24 billion a year. “For each serious accident prevented, you save $35,000 in health-care costs,” he said.

Police Lt. Dan Johnson said unsafe speed accounts for just under one-fourth of the accidents in Huntington Beach. Failure to yield the right of way is second, but Johnson said those causal factors merge into a major driving bugaboo--failure to pay attention.

“There are so many cars on the road now,” Johnson said. “You’ve got a lot of people driving, a lot of people in a hurry, they all live busy lives and all these things contribute.” People may have their minds on “a million other things” than driving, he said, and it’s easy to become distracted.

Tustin Police Sgt. Bill Fisher agrees.

“They really don’t see that light or that stop sign,” he said. “In their mind’s eye, they don’t see it. We can try and educate them as much as possible, but you know yourself that driving is second nature to you. You start preoccupying your mind with other things. I don’t know if there is any real way to combat it.”

Fullerton Sgt. Neal Baldwin offered the partially comforting note that traffic accidents in his city haven’t increased significantly over the years.

“I don’t think it’s so much that there are worse drivers now,” he said. “There have always been tickets, there have always been crashes. From what I’ve seen, the overwhelming majority [reason] on the accident reports we take is inattention. It’s the average, everyday person just not paying attention.”

Accidents cost police departments a huge amount of time in investigation and paperwork. They’re especially frustrating because, as the Brea department’s Cpl. McIntyre said, “Everything is so preventable. You’ll never get rid of crime. That’s the goal, but you only hope to attain it. But people driving safely and being considerate of each other, that’s very attainable.”

Even in my newly awakened state of irritation over inattentive or careless drivers, I’m stumped for answers. Seeing the devastation that a momentary lapse of attention causes cries out for punishment, but what? Unless someone gets killed, the faulty driver generally pays only with an insurance company headache.

Somehow, the price of daydreaming behind the wheel has to go up.

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by writing to him at the Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or calling (714) 966-7821.