Odds and ends, 4/6/09

WASHINGTON (AP) — Less money in the pockets of Americans means fewer highway deaths. As the economy slid deeper into recession and gas prices reached $4 a gallon last year, the number of people killed in auto accidents hit its lowest level in five decades.

In addition to fewer miles logged by drivers worried about expenses, experts also cited record-high seat-belt use, tighter enforcement of drunken driving laws and the work of advocacy groups that encourage safer driving habits.

I'll add two more contributing factors: better roads and better cars.

I'll take the highway system we have today over that of 1959, before there were four-lane highways between every city of any size. I used to know a guy in Ashland who took several long-distance road trips in those days, and he said every day he would pass by a fatal accident.

Add to that the fact that cars today are so much better than they were 30 years ago even. I've written before about how I saw a Porsche 924 for sale and I started lusting for it until I thought about the doors, the brakes, the crumple zones, the lack of airbags, the handling and such. I drive an all-wheel-drive vehicle that handles a lot better than my "sporty" 1980 model car. The 80 was good for its day, but it's functionally obsolete now when compared with what modern cars offer.

###

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government may require new faces in executive suites at banks requiring “exceptional assistance” in the future, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Sunday.

Critics of the Obama administration’s move last weekend to force out the chairman of General Motors Corp., Rick Wagoner, as a condition for possible additional federal loans say that strong government intervention contrasts with measures placed on the financial industry in return for billions in infusions.

Geithner denied there was a double standard and put banks on notice that they may need to change leadership teams in exchange for accepting more money in the future.

But what if it's true that some banks are forced to take TARP money and that the administration won't let them pay it back ahead of schedule? Sounds like a hostile takeover to me. A government that can't keep itself out of debt wants to appoint top management of the nation's largest banks. Sounds like a good idea to me.

###

CHICAGO (AP) — A striking new study says almost 1 in 5 American 4-year-olds is obese, and the rate is alarmingly higher among American Indian children, with nearly a third of them obese.

Researchers were surprised to see differences by race at so early an age.Overall, more than half a million 4-year-olds are obese, the study suggests. Obesity is more common in Hispanic and black youngsters, too, but the disparity is most startling in American Indians, whose rate is almost double that of whites.

The lead author said that rate is worrisome among children so young, even in a population at higher risk for obesity because of other health problems and economic disadvantages.

We can quibble over the definition of "obese," but I do see a lot more overweight kids today than I remember when I was growing up. It may have been the rural community I lived it, or it may have been a change in modern diet and physical activity. But I do see more heavy kids today than a generation or two ago.