RECESSION'S GOOD NEWS FINALLY-LESS DEATHS FROM CAR CRASHES

It is hard to find good news in all the bad news coming out of each corner of our economy. But there is a lot of good news from the National Highway Safety Administration.

Apparently with consumers having less money in their pockets, that translates into less highway deaths as they travel less and do it at lower speeds to save on the expenses of gasoline. The NHSA reported that the number of people killed in 2008 was the lowest in 50 years!

Finally good news from the recession!

Additionally more people reported the use of seat belts (83% of drivers) adding to the smaller fatalities as well.

According the the NHSA, ONLY 37,313 people died in motor vehicle crashes last year, a full 9.1% less than in 2007 when 41, 059 were killed. The percentages were even more impressive in New England as the drop was over 14% from the prior year.

The bad news is that due to the mandated increases in fuel economy standards expected from motor vehicles over the next several years, the less safe smaller autos will unfortunately result in an ever increasing number of fatalities due to less protection for the motorists in smaller autos.

Again, the government is mandating what is "good for the people". The tradeoof for better fuel milage is mandated DEATH.