Ore. New Year's traffic fatals highest since 1970
SALEM, Ore. (AP) - Oregon State Police say the New Year's holiday traffic death toll of 12 people in four accidents is the highest since the state Transportation Department began keeping such statistics in 1970.
This year's toll includes the nine people killed in the Dec. 30 bus crash on Interstate 84 in the Pendleton area.
Lt. Gregg Hastings says three of the holiday crashes and 11 of the deaths occurred on I-84.
The 102-hour reporting period started at 6 p.m. Dec. 28 and ended at 11:59 p.m. on Jan. 1.
Six people died in four separate crashes during the previous New Year's holiday reporting period.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.
Ok quit lying with the numbers...
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To be fare you can't count the ice related bus accident which had nothing to do with new years party accidents. So this actually means only 3 died due to drinking which means it if 50% better then last year and no where near the 1970 number.
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Lying for news paper headlines is so yesterday...
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I would like to hear the media and left screaming for more alcohol control like they do for gun control though every time someone dies from it. Barely makes the news when an alcohol death occurs and no one talks stricter controls yet deaths from other things bring the full weight of the left and media screaming for stricter control.
 @FreedomRocks They're not lying if they measure traffic fatalities consistently year to year, and it says nothing about drunk driving which would be a subset of overall fatalities.
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I would, however, call the bus crash an outlier as it skews the trend badly.
Why not take the numbers even further. 11 of the 12 deaths occured on I-84...lets shutdown I-84 as it causes >90% of the traffic accidents in Oregon.
 @JimmyWally HEY..... Knock that off!!!  Some politician is liable to think that is actually a good idea.
Does this "New Years Holiday" seem kinda long? From Friday night to Tuesday morning? If New Years falls on a Saturday does the time fram only go from Friday night to Saturday morning. It also seems to make it seem as if these are all related to the holiday when in fact the bus crash was just a random event that had no connection.
It's not the "highest since 1970." It's the highest EVER, but we only know the number back to 1970.
Sheesh. I-84 made up for some time this year, it seems. Ouch. Darn good thing the snow and ice didn't show up today with the wind - we'd have had even more accidents. Driving the Gorge was not a pleasant experience today.