Revenge of the Wetlands--Florida leads the nation in car crash drownings
Most of those retention ponds or canals along our highways come as a result of undermining some wetland or natural drainage system.
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Its review of crash data and death records from 2004-07 also found that Florida leads the nation but it put the number of drownings much higher: an average of 57 deaths each of those years in Florida and 384 nationwide.
The reason the numbers in the federal study are higher: Its researchers incorporated death certificate records, in addition to crash records, and uncovered hundreds of vehicle drownings that law enforcement agencies had not recorded as such.
snip
The most likely reason, Santos said, is that Florida has more miles of roads with water frontage than other states.
That includes all of the naturally-occurring water, but also retention ponds that road builders are required to dig near thoroughfares, something mandated by state and local environmental regulations.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-cars-crash-into-lakes-20141108-story.html#page=1
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