Louisiana among deadliest states for highway fatalities, data shows
Why it matters: April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month, where advocacy groups hope to bring attention to a leading cause of crashes — cellphone use.
The big picture: Louisiana averaged about 20 highway fatalities per 100,000 residents in 2022, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics and the St. Louis Federal Reserve.
That's much higher than the national average of 13.
Other Southern states — Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee — also ranked among the deadliest.
By the numbers: In 2023, 811 people were killed in crashes, and 22% of those crashes involved inattention or a distraction, the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission says.
New Orleans keeps a dashboard of local crash data.
Zoom in: Louisiana has laws banning texting for all drivers and requiring hands-free cellphone usage in school zones, the commission says.
Another law bans cellphone usage (unless hands-free) for drivers holding a learner's or intermediate license.
Gov. Jeff Landry and insurance commissioner Tim Temple are backing another bill this legislative session that would increase cellphone restrictions while driving, WRKF reports.
Zoom out: Around 3,300 people died nationwide in crashes attributed to distracted driving in 2022, while another 289,000 were injured, according to the latest available National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data.
More than 62,000 crashes involved distracted cellphone usage in 2022 alone, the NHTSA says.
These stats likely underestimate the problem because crash data often relies on drivers self-reporting their distractions to law enforcement, National Safety Council executive VP of safety leadership and advocacy Mark Chung tells Axios.
The big picture: U.S. traffic deaths per 100,000 people peaked in the 1930s and total deaths peaked in 1972, then gradually declined thanks to vehicle improvements, better infrastructure and public safety campaigns.
But the rate of crash deaths started rising again about a decade ago, spiking during the COVID-19 pandemic.
2022 was still in the late pandemic era, and it's unclear whether things have changed since then.
Flashback:"How much longer will a civilized nation endure such mass mayhem?" the NSC asked in 1955 after 602 Americans died on roadways over a single Christmas weekend.
It took 13 more years for seatbelts to be required in all new vehicles — and the NSC now wants similar action to curb distracted driving.
Nearly all U.S. states ban texting while driving, per the Governors Highway Safety Association, though their enforcement rules differ.
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USA Today
6 hours ago
- USA Today
Cities hope to attract more police officers by cutting education requirements
Some cities hope that relaxing education hiring standards may solve lingering staffing shortages. Is that a good idea? The Dallas Police Department had been shrinking for years, losing more officers than they hired ‒ and competition for recruits was fierce. Then the hiring woes got even more dire in the fall of 2024, when voters passed a proposition that required the force have at least 4,000 officers, hundreds more than it had even at its peak in 2010. So the department tried a new recruiting strategy: Make it easier to hire by dropping the requirement that applicants have college credits under their belt. Dallas isn't alone. It's among a number cities to relax college education hiring requirements for officers, a yearslong trend that includes Chicago, Memphis, Louisville, and New Orleans. The changes bring the cities back in alignment with much of the nation. More than 80% - of law enforcement agencies only require a high school diploma to be hired, according to a 2017 survey of nearly 1,000 departments nationwide. 'In a perfect world, would you want police officers to be college educated? Absolutely, but this is where policing is now,' said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum. 'There simply is more demand for police officers - for qualified police officers - than there is a supply.' Research has found there are some benefits to stricter standards: college-educated officers tend to use less force, have fewer complaints against them and write better reports. But some police researchers say these findings aren't definitive and relaxing education requirements can make the job accessible to more Americans amid the rising cost of college. In the weeks since the Dallas police made the change, applications have begun to roll in from people who previously wouldn't have been able to become a police officer, according to Luis Mata, a spokesperson for the department. Recruits must still pass a civil service test, physical exam, background checks as well as psychological and medical evaluations before they can enter the 10-month-long police academy. 'I've been asked this question, 'does education have any sort of bearing on whether somebody is going to be successful through your academy?'' said Mata. 'And I would say that we have people with master's degrees, bachelor's degrees and associate's that fail out of our academy. It's really about applying yourself.' Why are police changing education requirements? Law enforcement officials say they are trying new recruitment strategies like dropping education requirements in part due to nationwide shortages. Federal officials have said law enforcement faced a "historic crisis in recruiting and retaining" officers because of a tight labor market during the pandemic and protests over high profile police killings, though recent data suggests the crisis may be easing. A few locations have reexamined their education requirements in 2025, including: New York: The NYPD announced in February it would lower its education requirement from 60 college credits to 24. The department said in a statement it reached out to thousands of previously ineligible candidates in hopes of amassing 35,000 officers by the fall of 2026. California: After a push to require prospective officers under 25 to get a bachelor's degree, lawmakers are considering new legislation that would require officers have either a bachelor's degree, an associate's degree, a modern policing degree or a professional policing certificate, which requires at least 15 credits that can be partially obtained through police academy coursework. The requirements don't apply to people with at least four years of military service or law enforcement experience from another state. 'I still believe that somebody with a high school diploma should be able to access the occupation because right now, with the recruiting pool, the amount of candidates that we actually have available to us is not as big as it used to be back in the days,' said Brian Marvel, president of the Peace Officers Research Association of California, a federation of associations that represents more than 83,000 officers in the state. Does college education help police officers? Experts have been calling for a better educated police force for decades, including two federal commissions that raised the issue in the 1930s and 1960s. Research has found education may improve officers' interactions with the public. College-educated officers use force less often and have less disciplinary action taken against them than their peers without a degree, a 2007 study published in Criminal Justice and Behavior found. This may be particularly important for officers serving minority communities. College exposes students to people from various backgrounds, allowing them to develop "a greater appreciation and compassion for others," said one 2023 paper on the value of college education for police officers, which was published in the journal Research in Higher Education. College-educated officers have also been found to be better report writers, which 'could translate into better investigations, higher court case filings, fewer evidentiary constitutional challenges, fewer false confessions or wrongful convictions, and/or more successful prosecution,' according to a 2017 report on the role of higher education in policing. "On the whole, more research indicates positive effects than no correlation or negative consequences," the report said. But the evidence that education can make you a better police officer isn't definitive, according to both the study and Eugene A. Paoline III, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Central Florida. "Experience is also something that matters in police behavior and their attitudes," he said. "And we find that the same way that college-educated people might use less force, more experienced people use less force because they find alternate ways to handle situations." Paoline said his research has also found some drawbacks, including that officers with higher education levels are less satisfied with their job. Education requirements also create an additional barrier for certain groups, including those who can't afford college, he said. Though the share of Americans with bachelor's degree has been rising, Hispanic and Black adults were more likely than their White counterparts to say cost is a major reason they didn't complete a four-year degree, according to the Pew Research Center. 'I am a fan of police having a college experience, college degree,' he said. 'At the same time, I'm saying, if you don't have an education requirement, it's not going to be harmful. It's not going to be a total detriment to the field.' Does lowering education standards solve staffing shortages? Several departments have seen a surge in applications after nixing college education requirements, but there are some signs that loosening standards doesn't necessarily solve staffing problems. Both Wexler and Paoline said they couldn't point to examples of a department hiring more people after removing education requirements. In the month after the Philadelphia Police Department dropped its requirement that recruits have at least two years of college credit under their belt in 2016, applications skyrocketed to more than 5,700, up from a high of less than 2,000 in previous years' application drives, according to Captain John Walker. 'I think it just was because people who couldn't apply before … just decided they wanted to be police officers,' said Walker. But Philly police staffing stayed flat in 2016 at 96% and dipped slightly the following year, according to Walker. 'Now we sit at 82% staffing,' Walker said. Applications to the New Orleans Police Department rose after they jettisoned a college education requirement ten years ago, spiking to a high of 7,440 in 2017, according to city data. But the department continued to hire around 100 people each year and far fewer after 2020. Even without the education requirement, recruitment has remained a challenge according to Matthew Stone, of the New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation. 'The general goal is to increase the amount into the top of that funnel, and this is what we were tasked with over the last 10 years, which is marketing the applications,' he said.
9 hours ago
CDC shooter believed COVID vaccine made him suicidal, sources say
Sources said the suspect in the targeted attack in Atlanta blamed the COVID-19 vaccine for making him depressed and suicidal.
American Press
11 hours ago
- American Press
CDC shooter believed Covid vaccine made him suicidal
A Georgia man who had blamed the COVID-19 vaccine for making him depressed and suicidal has been identified as the shooter who opened fire late Friday on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters, killing a police officer. The 30-year-old suspect, who died during the incident, had also tried to get into the CDC's headquarters in Atlanta but was stopped by guards before driving to a pharmacy across the street and opening fire, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press on Saturday. The man, identified as Patrick Joseph White, was armed with five guns, including at least one long gun, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation. A union representing workers at the CDC said the incident was not random and 'compounds months of mistreatment, neglect, and vilification that CDC staff have endured.' It demanded federal officials condemn vaccine misinformation, saying it was putting scientists at risk. Here's what to know about the shooting and the continuing investigation: An attack on a prominent public health institution Police say White opened fire outside the CDC headquarters in Atlanta on Friday, leaving bullet marks in windows across the sprawling campus. At least four CDC buildings were hit, Director Susan Monarez said on X. DeKalb County Police Officer David Rose was mortally wounded while responding. Rose, 33, a former Marine who served in Afghanistan, had graduated from the police academy in March. White was found on the second floor of a building across the street from the CDC campus and died at the scene, Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said. He added that 'we do not know at this time whether that was from officers or if it was self-inflicted.' The Georgia Bureau of Investigations said the crime scene was 'complex' and the investigation would take 'an extended period of time.' CDC union calls for condemnation of vaccine misinformation and tighter security The American Federation of Government Employees, Local 2883, said the CDC and leadership of the Department of Health and Human Services must provide a 'clear and unequivocal stance in condemning vaccine disinformation.' Such a public statement by federal officials is needed to help prevent violence against scientists, the union said in a news release. 'Their leadership is critical in reinforcing public trust and ensuring that accurate, science-based information prevails,' the union said. Fired But Fighting, a group of laid-off CDC employees, has said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is directly responsible for the villainization of CDC's workforce through 'his continuous lies about science and vaccine safety, which have fueled a climate of hostility and mistrust.' Kennedy reached out to staff on Saturday, saying 'no one should face violence while working to protect the health of others.' Thousands of people who work on critical disease research are employed on the campus. The union said some staff were huddled in various buildings until late at night, including more than 90 young children who were locked down inside the CDC's Clifton School. The union said CDC staff should not be required to immediately return to work after experiencing such a traumatic event. In a statement released Saturday, it said windows and buildings should first be fixed and made 'completely secure.' 'Staff should not be required to work next to bullet holes,' the union said. 'Forcing a return under these conditions risks re-traumatizing staff by exposing them to the reminders of the horrific shooting they endured.' The union also called for 'perimeter security on all campuses' until the investigation is fully completed and shared with staff.
