06/09/2010 // West Palm Beach, Florida, USA // Sandra Quinlan // Sandra Quinlan
West Palm Beach, FL—A recent report deemed Florida’s 382-mile stretch of Interstate 95 to be the deadliest roadway in the nation. The report compiled date collected by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) concerning fatal crashes along the precarious highway, according to information provided by the Palm Beach Post.
Reports indicated the Daily Beast website partitioned I-95 into stretches within each state. Fatal accidents, as opposed to the total number of fatalities, were then tallied. That sum was subsequently divided by the number miles within that state’s stretch of I-95.
After compiling the extensive traffic data, it was determined that there was a rate of 1.73 fatal accidents per mile in the state of Florida. The figures represented fatal crashes within a five-year span, beginning in 2004 and ending in 2008.
“I think it’s the volume coupled with the level of distraction that’s present in the driving environment these days… That really is a recipe for what we’ve been seeing here,” said Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) Lt. Alex Annunziato.
Annunziato also noted that with an incessant flow of new technology rolling into the hands of motorists, drivers are subject to a handful of potential distractions.
The trooper contends many motorists have established unsafe driving conditions, in comparison to about 12 years ago. “I get people passing me all the time. I see a lot of aggressive driving out there, a lot of lane-changing.”
Another issue at hand is the fact that expanding the heavily trafficked highway seems to be out of the question. A Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) spokesperson stated, “We don’t have the money to buy all those homes and all that right-of-way in order to add lanes to what’s already there… You may have an I-75 with the same number of lanes, but it doesn’t service as many people, so you don’t see as many accidents, although I-75 certainly has it’s own challenges.”
FDOT spokeswoman Barbara Kelleher added that all possible improvements and changes to the highway have been done.
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