That’s how many automobile crashes occurred on average throughout the calendar year in Odessa in 2012, according to statistics provided by the Odessa Police Department. Eighteen of those crashes resulted in 19 deaths. (These are just the crashes that the police department investigates.)
This year, so far, the city has had more than 1,000 crashes. Five of those wrecks resulted in five deaths.
But the number of citations has skyrocketed, a comparison from the first few months this year (January to May) to last year: 1,585 citations were given last year compared to 3,474 so far this year according to Sgt. Sherrie Carruth of OPD. Carruth, spokeswoman for the Odessa Police Department, said there have been significant citations written because of increased traffic and targeted enforcement, such as Safe Zones (around schools), Click It or Ticket and Selective Traffic Enforcement Program.
The police department employs just less than 185 officers.
“The Odessa Police Department is budgeted for 182 and of that, 138 are below the rank of sergeant,” said Carruth stated in an email response to questions. “Traffic volume along with calls for service demands and all other demands placed on department resources are managed on a priority basis. To the extent that we possibly can, we engage in traffic enforcement as a general product of patrol and also in targeted efforts to suppress speed. The workload is such that additional resources would be welcomed and would increase our ability to address all demands for service including demands placed on us by increased traffic volume.”
She said there is no one specific day that produces the most wrecks every year, that wrecks occur on any given day. “Memorial Day Weekend is not considered a dangerous weekend for OPD,” Carruth said. “The majority of major accidents occurred on the highways.”
Repeated messages left with a local Texas Department of Public Safety office were not returned. Steve LeSueur, a former patrol officer and the new communications officer for the OPD, has been with the OPD since August 2010 and said a lot of wrecks occur here because of speeding and driver inattention. Running red lights, another safety hazard, has led to wrecks, as well, he said.
He did not see many wrecks happen because of texting or cell phone usage or from people unsafely changing lanes, though.
His advice for motorists? “Pay attention, look both ways, be a defensive driver,” he said.
SIMPLE ARITHMETIC
James Beauchamp, president of the Midland Odessa Transportation Alliance, pointed to a couple of reasons why the area has experienced an uptick in wrecks: more vehicles on the roads and more miles driven.
“From 2011 to 2012, the number of registered vehicles here in the Odessa district — and primarily, the population based here is Midland and Odessa — increased by nearly 33,000,” he said. “The number of miles driven daily increased by over a million. We know there’s a lot more people, there’s a lot more cars, and we’re driving a lot more miles. That puts a strain on the existing infrastructure. There’s been very little out here in added capacity. Really, to be quite frank, we’re even pretty sparse in safety improvements. We’re making some, but not that many.”
Drivers can have a difficult time adjusting to a rapid type of change in the environment, Beauchamp said, and they end up “getting hurried, rushed, agitated, anxious, whatever you want to call it. And they end up making poor decisions.” That’s an explanation — not an excuse — for those decisions, he said. Capacity constraints can play a role, and driver behaviors and attitudes are exacerbated by that situation, creating a perfect storm.
CRASH DATA
Statewide, speed involvement crashes are down from 2008, according to data from the Texas Department of Transportation. In 2008, there were 26,092 crashes in which speed was a factor, including everything from fatality wrecks to noninjury crashes. In 2012, there were 24,189 crashes. In 2012, 679 of those wrecks resulted in fatalities, down from 821 in 2008. In the three years between 2008 and 2012 (2009-2011), deaths in crashes were in the 600s range. For the year to date, there have 212 speed-involvement crashes.
The fatality numbers are fewer for crashes attributed to cell/mobile phone usage and driver inattention and distraction in vehicle. Deaths caused by driver inattention and distraction hit 444 in 2008, with numbers falling into the 300s in the four years after. For the year to date, there have been 138 fatal crashes caused by driver inattention and distraction.
However, the overall number of crashes because of driver inattention and distraction is significantly higher than those involving speed: in 2008, there were 101,509 crashes, with 2012 posting a number of 88,785.
But a look at fatality crash numbers attributed to cell/mobile phone use have remained pretty constant: Twenty-nine fatal crashes occurred in 2008, with 35 reported in 2012, and the three intervening years all had numbers in the 40s. Total crashes reported from 2008 to 2012 have all been in the low to mid-3000s.
Legislation to ban texting while driving died in this legislative session.
In a Friday email statement to the OA, Rep. Tom Craddick of Midland (R-82nd District) expressed disappointment about the failure of the legislation, House Bill 63, which he introduced.
“Unfortunately, the bill proposing the statewide ban on texting will not become law this year. Legislators were poised to act on this legislation that would have saved lives. The chairman of the Senate Committee on Transportation denied lawmakers the opportunity to move House Bill 63 forward and subsequently denied Texans a chance to make our roads safer. I am incredibly disappointed by this result.
“Next legislative session, I will again attempt to put a statewide law in place to deter Texas drivers from texting while driving. It is devastating that we will have two more years of accidents and deaths on our Texas roadways from distracted driving that could have been prevented.
“Although there is no statewide law stopping Texans from picking up their phone to text while driving, I would implore everyone to focus on driving and put your phone down — it can wait.”
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (under the U.S. Department of Transportation), there were 32,367 deaths from motor vehicle wrecks in 2011 (last year information available). Texas had 3,016 deaths that year. NHTSA said 2012 data would be available in August.
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Source: OAOA (Munsch, 5/28)
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