Tagged: roads

Washington State has the highest rate of seat belt use in the nation. That’s according to a report recently released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Bob Calkins with the Washington State Patrol keeps an eye on the statistics.

“The national average is 84 percent. We are first among competing states at 97 and a half percent,” he says.

Following Washington are California, Oregon and Hawaii.

Cars and pedestrians collided fatally in Seattle 90 times between 2001 and 2009 – killing 104 pedestrians. The advocacy group Walking in Seattle reports that 28 of the fatal incidents could have been prevented by rechannelization or road diets.

The pedestrian-friendly group says Seattle should consider putting the streets where these 28 collisions occurred on a road diet. The city of Seattle has one street on the books.

If you don't have to be on the roads today you're being asked to stay home. State and local transportation officials around western Washington say conditions remain extremely poor, and won't improve much as the region remains in a deep freeze.