Drivers pile up more than 30 billion miles on Utah roads each year, according to the Utah Department of Transportation. As a result, Utah experienced 264 traffic deaths last year.
As tragic as these numbers are, often overlooked is how truly amazing it is that these numbers are not vastly higher. Considering the hundreds of thousands of people taking to the road each day, along what can seem to be narrow lanes with vehicles only inches apart, most drivers of cars and, yes, even big haulers, manage to avoid crashing into each other and killing themselves or other people.
I express my thanks to the many drivers risking their lives daily on our roads and yet driving in such a way as to avoid major accidents. It is a tribute to those people young and old who drive in such a fashion that the rest of us can be assured of arriving at work almost on time or coming home to our families to live valuable lives.
We need as a society to credit the many of us people who manage to keep our roads mostly safe and saving those lives which could have received a bleaker and more solemn fate.
Tab L. Uno, Clearfield