Highway gone to potholes

Every year in our Country, ten times as many people are killed in highway crashes than were killed by the September 11 terrorist attacks.

A long-term solution for lessening road fatalities would be to renovate select dangerous high-speed rural roads into divided highways. However, with our government short funded, due to the billions of dollars diverted to rebuild war torn bridges, roads and oversea pipelines, it looks like some of our back roads will go to potholes and fallow gravel.

Sometimes I get sick of seeing those photo-ops about how good our country is to rebuild Iraq’s infrastructure. Who blew the freaking bridges apart in the first place?

If Idaho cannot improve many basic highway safety features, then I suppose that groundbreaking ideas like expanding Professor Tom Trusky’s Statewide Movie Signage proposal, by merging it with the Highway Department’s already successful Historical Signage program are only distant fields of folly.

However, we might find a small portion of fair road funding if the State Legislature raises the measly ten-dollar fine it has for travelers caught not wearing safety belts, since studies over the past 50 years have repeatedly proven that they, also, contribute to higher road fatality rates.