Missouri drivers are on pace to kill more of themselves than any year since 2009. The Highway Patrol is seeing increasing signs that inattention is playing an increasing role in the rising numbers.
Fatality numbers in the first five months of 2012 are up about twenty percent, a disappointing situation to the Patrol, which has seen road deaths decline each year since 2005. Patrol spokesman says the patrol is seeing cars pulling out front of motorcycles or cars pulling in front of other vehicles, or crashes in which an inattentive driver drops a wheel off the right side of the road and makes the situation tragically worse by over-reacting.
The patrol has been seeing rollover crashes caused by drivers who try to quckly get the wheel back on the road….or crashes where the vehicle goes out of control and even crosses into other lanes on divided highways to overturn or crash into another vehicle.
Officers think this kind of situation would not happen as often if drivers’ attentions weren’t diverted by cell phones, texting, and other activities.