Focuses on the increase in the number of traffic accidents
experienced in Europe between the 1980s and 1990s, while offering the
views of David Krus, professor of statistics at Arizona State University,
Tempe, Arizona. Factors influencing the number of traffic accidents
experienced annually; Role of automobile drivers in decreasing the number
of traffic accidents.
By
PT Staff, published on July 01, 1998
TODAY
The end of communism wasn't all good news for Eastern Europe. Since
the revolutions of the late 1980s, the number of fatal traffic accidents
there has skyrocketed.
That intrigued David Krus, Ph.D., a professor of statistics at
Arizona State University and a native of the Czech Republic. When he got
out his calculator, he bumped into an odd trend.
In Western Europe, the more cars on the road, the greater the
number of deadly accidents. But in Eastern Europe, he found just the
opposite. The more exclusive car ownership is, the more people are killed
by reckless drivers.
Krus puts the blame on class differences created by the
introduction of capitalism. "After the end of communism, there was a
sharp differentiation between haves and have-nots," he says. "This new
class is extremely arrogant and has no compassion for the poor or the
needy. They're concerned only with ostentatious displays of their
wealth."
So they buy the luxury American and European cars now being
imported into Eastern Europe. These cars are far superior to the ones
manufactured under communism: faster, sleeker, sexier. Trouble is, says
Krus, they make their drivers feel superior, too--so much so that they
may run roughshod over pedestrians and other drivers.
According to Krus, many accidents are caused by nouveaux riches who
think they're better than people who don't have cars or who drive the old
communist-made models. "I'm convinced that it's all about the drivers'
class attitudes," he says. He thinks that as car ownership becomes more
common in Eastern Europe, the relationship between traffic fatalities and
number of cars on the road will become more like that of the West.
In the meantime, he says, not much can be done to stop the
newly-minted speed demons. "They feel free to disregard even the police,
because for them a fine is no big deal."--A.M.P.
PHOTO (COLOR): Increase of fatal traffic accidents are due to the
increase of cars on the road and the reckless behaviour by
drivers.
Tags:
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reckless drivers,
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speed demons,
traffic fatalities,
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