High price of gasoline saves lives

How can expensive gasoline save lives?

An analysis of yearly vehicle deaths compared to gas prices found death rates drop significantly as people slow down and drive less. If gas remains at $4 a gallon or higher for a year or more, traffic deaths could drop by more than 1,000 per month nationwide, said Michael Morrisey, Ph.D., director of UAB’s Lister Hill Center for Health Policy and a co-author on the new findings.

I suppose that there are some set-offs too, such as people putting off getting to the doctor when they really need to be tested or hospitalized.

Consider, also, this post: Eight ways to allow 3,000 people to die: a lesson in moral clarity.

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Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth is an attorney focusing on civil rights (including First Amendment), consumer law litigation and appellate practice. At this website often writes about censorship, corporate news media corruption and cognitive science. He is also a working musician, artist and a writer, having founded Dangerous Intersection in 2006. Erich lives in St. Louis, Missouri with his two daughters.

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  1. Avatar of grumpypilgrim
    grumpypilgrim

    Along these same lines, the current (Oct.) issue of Harper's magazine reports that the "gas tax holiday" (which was supported by John McCain) would have caused 66 additional road deaths.

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