According to reports last November 25th, Florida, together with other states, has cut back on the number of its highway patrol while traffic and population have gone up. Analysts are afraid that frugality when it comes to traffic enforcement can be a bad move for Florida especially that Thanksgiving weekend is yet to take place.
An analysis made by USA Today reveals that in the past 13 years, the population in Florida has grown by 28.8% while the number of road troopers has decreased by 4.6%. Insurance experts are afraid that the decline in highway personnel can lead to increased chances of collisions and road accidents. According to Florida patrol officials, they are still waiting for orders as to whether they will be deployed on highways or will be asked to work in the office to finish paper works. They too afraid that the state’s cut back on highway patrol will not help in controlling the high number of vehicles that is expected to cause traffic during the long Thanksgiving weekend.
According to insurance providers, decreasing the number of highway police is very much against their goals of promoting road safety and lessening the number of insurance claims. Representatives from insurance companies say that dropping the number troops who enforce traffic laws on the road is false economy. Insurance agents say that sometimes the state fails to compute on how much they really will solve from their actions when the number of accidents soar. A sight of a highway patrol monitoring traffic makes motorists alert and immediately check their speed and start driving carefully and less aggressively. Insurance providers argue that the absence of road troopers leads to motorists to have fewer reasons now to drive cautiously on the road.
On the other hand, cuts in the number of highway troops are worse in Michigan were it has decreased for approximately 15% and in Origen where the decline was 31.2%.
Local consumer groups are now worried that the state is not properly watching their protection on the road. They argue that the expensive cost of car repairs, hospital bills and other costs of road accidents altogether add up to a very big amount, and the prevention of a few collisions by maintaining the number of highway troops can save more money than can be enough to pay for all the Florida police for one day. Consumer groups reacted that the state cannot promote road safety when they themselves decrease the number of people who are supposed to watch over road safety.
