Traffic fatality numbers increase in fracking counties

FrackCheckWV

Death of Penna. man in fracking truck accident shows need for greater traffic safety measures

Submitted Column to Wilkes-Barre PA Times-Leader, January 9, 2015 http://www.timesleader.com/news/opinion_columns/51001898/THEIR-VIEW-Frackers-pose-rural-traffic-risk

From a Letter by Edward Ciarimboli, founding partner in the legal firm of Fellerman and Ciarimboli, a personal injury law firm with offices in Kingston, Scranton and Philadelphia

A fiery crash in Susquehanna County last week took the life of a 27-year-old Marine and father of two young boys. The SUV in which Staff Sgt. Andrew Stevens was driving reportedly was stopped behind two fracking trucks when a water truck smashed into the back of him.

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An increase in natural gas fracking has led to a spike in traffic fatalities in towns that find their roadways filled with large drilling rigs and fracking trucks. Drilling activity increases too quickly for many small communities to keep pace in making changes in road safety, such as building new roads, improving or widening existing roads or installing traffic signals in areas where they might now be needed. ...

... data in six drilling states show that in some places fatalities have more than quadrupled since 2004, a period when most American roads have become much safer. ...

... fatal crashes on Texas highways increased 50 percent from 2009 through 2013. This increase in fatalities came after decades of declines in Texas, just as the boom in fracking operations was beginning. ...

... Pennsylvania is in the top five states in fatal crashes, with 1,211, following only Texas with 3,021, California with 2,632, Florida with 2,247 and North Carolina with 1,222. These five states accounted for more than a third of the fatal crashes in the entire country.

... traffic fatalities in Pennsylvania drilling counties rose 4 percent from 2009 to 2013, while in the rest of the state they fell 19 percent.

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