In a new report from the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, a national highway safety group, Arizona was ranked second to last in terms of the state's traffic safety laws. According to the group's president, implementing the recommended laws could prevent many car accident deaths in the state. However, state lawmakers say that traffic fatalities have significantly decreased in Arizona in recent years, and there is no indication that the additional laws recommended by the group would have any significant effect.

According to the highway safety group's ninth annual report, Arizona has adopted fewer than five of the 15 laws that the group considers "basic to traffic safety." These laws include required use of motorcycle helmets and seat belts and stricter laws on teen and distracted driving.

More than 750 people were killed on Arizona roads in 2010, with an estimated cost of nearly $3 billion, says group president Jacqueline Gillan. "It doesn't make sense when you look at the economic cost and carnage on the Arizona highways," she said, "that they are still ignoring some really effective public health interventions that could really bring down deaths and injuries and costs for the state," she said.

But Arizona state officials say that the laws proposed by the safety group don't address real problems on Arizona roads. In recent years, for example, the number of traffic deaths involving motorcyclists without helmets, drivers and passengers who weren't wearing seat belts, and teen drivers all dropped. At the same time, Arizona lawmakers have cracked down on drunk drivers, resulting in a significant drop in alcohol-related fatalities.

What do you think? Should the state add additional traffic safety laws in order to reduce car accident deaths? Or would those laws be unnecessary?

Source: The Daily Courier, "State: Report says Arizona has second-worst traffic-safety laws in the nation," Stephanie Snyder, Jan. 15, 2012