Traffic deaths have red state-blue state divide

[djg21]

November's presidential contest was bizarre in many ways, but there is one peculiarity that pundits haven't pounced on: The states with the worst rates of traffic deaths in the country went solidly for Donald Trump while Hillary Clinton swept states with the lowest fatality rates.

That odd association between traffic deaths and how states voted echoes what happened just over four years ago, when this red-blue divide first came to light. As FairWarning reported in 2012, low fatality states voted blue to re-elect President Obama, while states with higher death rates went for GOP challenger Mitt Romney.

This November's presidential voting reshuffled the deck somewhat. Six states that were Obama blue in 2012 turned red in 2016, delivering a victory to the GOP's Trump. Yet the correlation between traffic death rates and presidential voting actually appears slightly stronger.

http://www.timesunion.com/tuplus-local/article/Traffic-deaths-have-red-state-blue-state-divide-10898946.php?cmpid=123

I'll refrain from speculating, but a well-known line from the movie Animal House immediately came to mind.

[CrispyQ]

1. "Don't drive angry!"

A lot of them are very angry. Angry at the wrong people, but angry, still.

[Lars39]

2. Mandatory Drivers Ed doesn't exist in TN,

And people don't have the money for private lessons.

[Motown_Johnny]

3. Might not spending on transit systems be the actual variable here?

I have not looked into it but it seems reasonable to assume that states which skew (D) would spend more on infrastructure such as transit while states which skew (R) would spend less.




P.S. Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?

[djg21]

6. The article . . .

Attributes the varying fatalities rates to the urban/rural divide, and ponders whether there ar more fatalities because people tend to drive faster on rural roads than people on more conceited city streets can. I'm sure this is one variable, but I have suspicions that there are other factors involved. I'd like to see statistics as to how many traffic fatalities in the various states involved alcohol or other substances.

[Johnny2X2X]

4. Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life son.

Let's call it what it is, deep red states are basically hell holes bordering on 3rd world territory.

[djg21]

7. You read my mind. ;-)

https://books.google.com/books/about/Welcome_to_Dumbfuckistan.html?id=S7TCjwEACAAJ

[njhoneybadger]

5. That's interesting,thanks

[SecularMotion]

8. That extrapolates to almost all state statistics

Blue states generally have higher positives(income, education) and lower negatives(deaths, crime rates) while the opposite is true of red states.