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Mina Crash Reveals Gaps in Seat Belt Security—Everyone Stay Home!

Taking no risks, Dennis Daugaard always buckles up.
Taking no risks, Dennis Daugaard always buckles up.

Three South Dakotans died in a head-on crash a mile west of Mina on Highway 12 Saturday afternoon. Two of the three fatalities were wearing seat belts.

These deaths reveal gaps in seat belt safety.

Governor Dennis Daugaard is charged with ensuring the safety and wellbeing of his citizens. In order to adequately fulfill this duty, he should request an immediate review of the process by which the govenrment ensures that all individuals traveling our highways are protected from physical harm and address the gaps in seat belt safety revealed in the Mina crash.

In the wake of this recent tragedy, and until we can ensure the citizens of our states that an exhaustive review of all safety measures has been completed and the necessary changes have been implemented, Governor Daugaard should respectfully request that South Dakotans suspend all plans to travel on South Dakota highways.

12 Comments

  1. mike from iowa 2015-11-23 09:22

    Shouldn’t the gubmint ban all cars or at least regulate the hell out of them?

  2. mike from iowa 2015-11-23 09:31

    If that photo was of Obama and another guy,you know some wingnut outlet would use it and swear Obama is gay. Fly the friendly skies united,dudes.

  3. Rorschach 2015-11-23 10:38

    You don’t get it Cory. For Republicans it’s about us vs. them. The people shooting people in the US are “us” as compared to foreigners. Those same people are “them” as compared to law abiding, responsible gun owners. The people who die needlessly every day because they didn’t buckle up (and those in the Mina crash who did buckle up) are “us” as compared to foreigners. But if those same people were killed in a car accident with a Syrian immigrant driver – one of “them” it would be unacceptable. Unless Syrians could prove they will never kill anyone in a car accident they should never be allowed in.

  4. Bert 2015-11-23 23:05

    One would think that the stats on that stretch of road might show that it should have been a 4-lane long ago

  5. caheidelberger Post author | 2015-11-24 07:45

    Do you have those stats handy, Bert?

  6. leslie 2015-12-01 11:26

    i like your “us/them” point, rohr.

    “Them”, “those” people is often code for hidden racism. White privilege enables people to deny they are racist, perhaps without knowledge.

    for example, recently, under the darla thread:

    Lynn/Happy Camper- “I’m fouth generation blahblahblah,…our ancestors settled this harsh lonely state”. happy proceeded to go on about how it was “too late” for 18 year old Indian kids to be rehabilitated by Gearup and it was a waste of big money on “those people” or something like that.

  7. caheidelberger Post author | 2015-12-02 07:29

    Thanks for sharing that article, Bert! Why wouldn’t we be gathering data in Edmunds County?

    I notice that the Edmunds County sheriff says we should make 12 a four-laner through his territory to ease the bottlenecks caused by people slowing down for deer. Yeah, right: add an extra lane so people not driving cautiously can blast by the folks who are driving cautiously. The sheriff says four lanes would also “give room for error.” Seriously? Instead of spending millions on concrete and double the future maintenance so drivers can make more errors, how about we get drivers to reduce their errors by slowing down and putting down their phones?

  8. Bert 2015-12-02 22:51

    Since it only takes one error by the other driver to cost you your life, the idea that we can make people behave and pay attention is of very little solace to daily commuters on that road.

  9. caheidelberger Post author | 2015-12-03 13:03

    True, and that’s fair reason to argue for extra lanes, guardrails, etc. But let’s start with center rumble strips. For much less cost than laying more concrete, we could reduce crashes by 38% to 50%.

    But we should also keep telling people to stop driving like idiots and impose penalties for doing so that don’t wait for someone to crash into another car while texting.

  10. caheidelberger Post author | 2016-01-30 13:34

    Interesting—just how much money will the state decide it’s willing to spend on addressing this problem?

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