An advocacy organization just concluded a study into which of the states in the U.S. has the worst traffic laws, and hands down the answer was Missouri. Researchers say if the laws there don’t change, more people will die on the state’s roads.
Advocates For Highway & Auto Safety conducted a study of traffic laws from state to state, the Kansas City Star reports. Cathy Chase, President for the Advocates For Highway & Auto Safety, told the paper researchers looked at whether states had 18 different highway laws proven to reduce crashes, save lives and reduce injuries. These included restrictions on new drivers, car seat requirements for children and seat belts, and helmet laws. Missouri came up last in the study. Of those 18 laws, the state had just one that was enacted, and even then the law isn’t exactly official, says the Star:
Missouri was considered dangerous because it has only one of the 18 laws on the books. And that single law — allowing red light cameras — was deemed invalid by the state Supreme Court. This means since 2015, red light cameras have only been operational in one town: Hannibal, Missouri.
Missouri needs these laws. Roads all over the state have been deadly the entire year. The Kansas City Star reports data from the Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety shows that from January through November of this year, 854 people were killed on Missouri roads in traffic related accidents; 110 of those deaths were in northwestern Jackson County, the most in the entire state.
The 18 traffic laws Missouri is missing are laws you think would be no brainers for officials to implement. They include texting while driving restrictions, booster seat requirements for children, prohibiting kids under 13 from sitting in the front seat and helmet requirements for motorcycle riders. Missouri currently requires a motorcycle helmet for riders 25 and younger. If you’re 26 or older and you have health insurance, you don’t have to wear a helmet while riding.
Suggestions on what the state could do to make roads more safer also reveals that it’s not just lawless drivers who are to blame for the deadly roads. Aging infrastructure design plays a part in this as well.
While changing driver behavior through stricter traffic laws is one part of keeping motorists safe, infrastructure techniques also have a large role in making crashes less severe. The Federal Highway Administration suggests narrowing roads, using speed bumps and increasing visibility to make human errors less catastrophic. In June, Kansas City officials promised $4 million to traffic calming efforts around the city.
Missouri is as deadly as they’re saying but only to a certain point, which isn’t anything to brag about. A study done using data from the NHTSA determined that Missouri ranked third in fatal highway accidents. The state had a rate of 15.45 deaths per 100,000 people; for perspective, the national average is 9.12 deaths per 100,000 people. Only Wyoming and New Mexico were deadlier, with the states taking the one and two spots.
Cathy Chase says that the state needs to make a change, and the first step is actually getting the laws on the books and making sure they’re enforced. “Step one is to get a good law on the books. And then after that, to make sure that there are trained law enforcement officers…to enforce the traffic safety laws,” Chase told the Kansas City Star.
