Two old friends were killed recently outside Jackson when a
van full of tourists crossed the center line and hit them head-on. Carol Roemer, 68, Riverton, and Dorothy “Dot”
Ashby, 78, Lander, were two of the nicest gals in Fremont County. On this day,
they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
There was no
explanation for why the out-of-state tourist driving the mini-van would have
swerved into the oncoming lane. He was also killed with four of his passengers
airlifted to area hospitals.
This deadly
crash took the state’s traffic death toll to 92 for the year, compared to just
57 at this same time a year ago. Why have traffic deaths almost doubled this
year?
Steve Peck in
his Riverton Ranger editorial July 24
thinks he has the answer.
“It’s hard to
believe traffic safety is not being affected by the new visual stimuli
competing with the road outside the car for the driver’s attention inside the
car,” he writes.
The crash we
described earlier here occurred in the shadow of the Grand Teton Mountain Range,
literally one of the most beautiful views in the entire United States. Yet, for some reason, a driver veered into
the oncoming lane with deadly consequences.
Peck writes
that it is not just cell phones that are causing the distraction. He cited a TV ad for a new car touting the
13-inch display on the car’s dashboard that provides the driver with all kinds
of information. Hmmm. Perhaps the driver
needs to be looking at the highway ahead rather than studying a monitor on the
dashboard?
Two of the
oldest reasons for people dying in car wrecks have not diminished much. Way too
many people died because they were not wearing seat belts. This is an easy fix – if people would just
wise up. Slight injuries turn into fatalities
when the seat belts are not used.
Second big
cause is impaired driving from alcohol, marijuana, or other drugs. A lot of
good work in public education and law enforcement has helped but it still is a
problem.
There are many
reasons why Wyoming roads should be safer than they are. We have the lowest
population of any state (7 people per square mile), we have very good roads,
and most Wyomingites are veterans of all kinds of driving conditions. We also
drive more miles per capita than any other state.
It seemed like
for years our traffic death toll had been going down, but not this year.
Could it be
speed? I loved it when the legislature made the Department of Transportation
increase speed limits from 65 to 70 on most roads and put in an 80 mph limit in
many places on our interstate highways. Perhaps some of these accidents were
caused by that, but I have not seen any conclusive evidence.
WYDOT has
spent a lot of money on variable speed limit signs which slow traffic down
below the posted limits under certain conditions, such as weather.
One of my
coffee buddies claims that out of state drivers pass more often and more
recklessly than Wyoming drivers. The
increase in passing lanes should have dealt with that, you might think.
Perhaps it is
caused by all those lumbering RVs and motorhomes (like me?) that clog the
highways nine months out of the year and slow the traffic down. Not sure.
WYDOT has also
spent a lot of money on message boards which tell us to watch out for wildlife,
motorcyclists, and bicyclists on the roads and other dangers.
It also seems
to me that we have seen a surge in deaths in motorcycle crashes. More people are riding these days than ever.
One of the
more recent fatal car crashes in Wyoming occurred July 28 and carried an old
theme. At 4:44 a.m. a 2013 Ford Explorer left highway 191 and rolled.
Killed was
23-year old driver Ashley Skorcz of Rock Springs. She was not wearing her seat
belt. Her five year old daughter Emma was in the car but was also not protected
and was life flighted to Utah for serious injuries.
Miss Skorcz
was the manager of a Rock Springs convenience store and grew up in Farson. A
fund has been started in Rock Springs for her daughter.
The fatality brought the state
total to 94 deaths on highways in 2019. With the year barely half done, we are
close to exceeding the highest annual total in the past 25 years when 102
people died in 1999.
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