Helmets drastically reduce the tremendous number of deaths caused by head injuries as well as reducing the severity of any nonfatal injuries to the head. In 2010 there were about 3700 people who were killed in motorcycle accidents (Naumann). With the helmet law in effect, close to 100 percent of motorcyclists wear a helmet. Without the law, only 50 percent of motorcyclists wear helmets. Also, death rates are twice as high in states without the law (Watson).
In miles driven, the motorcyclist are at a high risk of crash than an automobile driver and a study conducted by the university of California showed that wearing of helmet reduces the risk by 29 percent. So should all states require motorcyclists and passengers to wear helmets? (Motorcycle helmets, n.d) A motorcyclist without a helmet involved in an accident is more likely to suffer a brain injury as a motorcyclist wearing a helmet. Large number of motorcyclists’ are a victim of death each year debarring people from living a fulfilled life. Mostly because of head injuries sustained in accidents.
Did you know that 27 people in America die each day due to drunk driving fatalities and another 15 due to fatalities linked to distracted driving? According to Johnston and Wiggins, 2012 Every year there are thousands of fatal car crashes due to distracted drivers. Distracted driving is not only caused from texting & drinking, but from other distractions as well. These distractions include eating, music, children or other passengers in the car, & even putting on makeup or fixing their hair. There are many laws out there that ban texting and drinking while driving to keep people from harm’s way but there are so few people who actually obey the laws.
In the U.S. texting while driving is a serious problem that needs to be addressed. Everyday in the United States there are about nine people who are killed and over 1,000 who are injured by distracted drivers. In 2015 according to NHTSA, 660,000 people reported that during the day they used their electronic devices while driving. Distracted driving alone caused 3,477 deaths, 3,196 deadly car crashes, and a total of 391,00 injuries (Clerkin). A simple solution to this deadly problem is to enforce stricter laws or even banning texting and driving to save thousands of lives each year.
Background Approximately 15,000 people die each year by overdosing on opioids, a rate that has more than tripled since 1990 (Wermeling, 2012). The annual incidence of opioid over dose associated mortality on a nationwide scale has been difficult to assess due to incomplete reporting systems (Leavitt, S.2010) as well as more than half of over doses go unreported for fears of repercussions (kuehn,2014). In Massachusetts these over doses have killed more than car crashes each year since 2005 (Wermeling, 2012). The government had tried numerous strategies to reduce the death toll, including imposing stricter regulations on prescribing medications, prosecuting owners of “pill mills” who dispense the drugs without proper medical evaluation, and tracking data bases to monitor and discourage “doctor shopping” among addicts (Szalvitz,2013). Addiction often begins with a legitimate opioid
A startling 293 murders were reported in 2010 in Los Angeles and 32 murders for Long Beach and yet it is even more shocking to know there are far more forcible rapes that occur in both of these areas. I would think that population size, diversity and other environmental factors have something to do with the differences in these numbers. The murder rate seems to have decreased while forcible rape increased in both cities, with an additional 630 incidents in Los Angeles and an additional 102 incidents in Long Beach. On the other hand, for the past several years, crime rates have dropped continually. The Los Angeles Police Department reported in 2008 that
In 2010 the Bureau of Justice Statistics report estimated that over 200,000 individual's are victims of hate crimes each year. “The disparity between statistics and self-reported victimizations indicates that a large number of incidents are never reported to the police” (Zaykowski, H., 2010). This staggering disparity raises questions about the trust that victims have in the hate crime laws. It also prompts questions about the effectiveness of the hate crime laws in general. The following California statistic is a prime example of this argument.
In a recent three year period, twice as many football players died from hits to the head, heat stroke, etc. (45 deaths), as compared with students who were murdered by firearms (22 deaths) during that same time period,”(www.gunowners.org.) does this mean we shouldn’t let kids play football? “Fun” fact: “More guns, less crime. In the decade of the 1990s, the number of guns in this country increased by roughly 40 million—even while the murder rate decreased by almost 40 percent.
The problem with guns is fairly obvious: they decrease the difficulty of killing or injuring a person. In Jeffrey A. Roth's Firearms and Violence (NIJ Research in Brief, February 1994), he points out the obvious dangers. About 60 percent of all murder victims in the United States in 1989 (about 12,000 people) were killed with firearms. Firearm attacks injured another 70,000 victims, some of whom were left permanently disabled. In 1985, the cost of shootings was an estimated $14 billion nationwide for medical care, long-term disability, and premature death.
These are only a few of the mass shootings that have occurred recently in the past and have sparked debate about the controversial topic of gun control. Every year, approximately 100,000 Americans fall victim to gun violence. Although guns should not be banned completely, limiting the buying and selling of guns, and restricting ammunition amounts and types. By putting gun