Jacilyn Bruns
Research & Reporting
3/26/15

Johnson J. Burdette, vice president in charge of statistical analysis for the Travelers Home Assurance co. of Chicago, was a featured speaker for a Freeport Rotary Club luncheon held at the Barton Hotel today. Johnson’s speech was entitled, “How to Cope with the Traffic Toll,” emphasizing the risks of drunk driving and what can be done to reduce the numbers. Johnson began by stating that highway fatalities are the leading cause of accidental death, with grinding traffic accidents killing about 40,000 men, women and children every year. “Not a pleasant subject, but a pressing one when you consider that more people have been killed on our highways–many more–than have been slain by the enemy in all our wars,” Johnson said. Johnson noted that the number has slightly declined from 50,000 deaths per year, but 40,000 deaths is still a problem. He went on to share the story of a friend that was killed, leaving his family in a tight situation. “There are human dimensions behind the cold statistics you see in the newspapers,” Johnson said. “There is no single solution. In fact, it is absurd to talk of trying to eliminate all traffic deaths. It cannot be done. There are certain factors we cannot control…but there are some we can.” Johnson said that he doesn’t believe billboards are effective enough to make someone “turn down that last cocktail,” and that driver’s license examinations are dangerously simple. “My point is: don’t let him get behind the wheel in the first place. Driving is not a right–it’s a privilege, one which the state can give and can take away. I say: Make the giving tougher. And make the taking away easier,” Johnson said. According to Johnson, arrests for driving under the influence increased 223 percent in a 15-year period, as well as the number of drivers increased to 42 percent. He said that this phenomenal set of figures cannot be stopped by asking drinkers not to drive, but having laws defining .08 as the blood alcohol content legal limit, and cracking down harder to enforce this. “Too often a patrolman simply takes the keys away from a drinker driver and puts him in a taxi. That way the patrolman is signing someone’s death warrant. And it might be your child’s,” Johnson said. Johnson concluded with certainty that the two steps to take and the background he provided for each will cut traffic deaths in half.