So far this year in Missouri, there have been almost 700 deaths on the highways. Of the fatal injuries on Missouri’s roads in 2012, 65% of them were not wearing safety belts. Possibilities are extremely high that they were also speeding, or the automobiles that struck them were doing this. Many people who are killed are doing nothing wrong, but are hit by a vehicle driven by someone exhausted, drunk, texting or speeding—sometimes, sadly, more than one of those.
Not one of us can control any driver but ourselves, but the usage of lit signs for traffic calming can help to get the attention of each driver and make accidents less likely.
Lit signs on Missouri’s roads tell drivers to buckle up because it’s the law. The signs change their message slightly each one or two seconds. This reminds drivers of the law and makes them pay attention to the changing display, getting the message thru to them even more. There’s no assurance that the 65% of deaths not wearing their seatbelts would have survived had they been wearing them. But chances are good that at least a number of them would have. For whatever reasons, they did not get the message.
There will always be some percentage of people that just don’t get the message, whether or not it’s to wear a lifesaving seatbelt or to decelerate. Most people, nevertheless, when faced with a changing display on a lit sign will respond to it. If it is giving instruction like buckle up or slow down, they’ll reply correctly.
Signs that may display the words “SLOW DOWN” together with a sad-face emoticon to help drive the point home to slow down when somebody’s speeding will usually cause the driver to slow. Signs that only flash the driver’s speed if it is above the limit customarily cause most drivers to decelerate. This deters speeding before it starts, and reduces the risk of accidents even more.
Click here to find out how you, as a part of your local government, can help reduce the number of roadside deaths with TraffiCalm signs.