July 4th weekend is a time to celebrate America’s liberty. Yet our liberties don’t include driving while impaired, a misjudgment which claims almost one third of all traffic deaths yearly, and an even higher 40 per cent of all traffic deaths on the mid-summer holiday.

Alcohol abuse by drivers crosses all geographic and socioeconomic lines. But motorcyclists have the highest proportion of alcohol abuse of any drivers on the road, and thus more motorcyclists die in traffic accidents on Independence Day than on any other day of the year.

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Again, tragedy has struck down an innocent child — and again, the tragedy was avoidable. Former heavyweight boxing champ Mike Tyson’s 4-year-old daughter has died, a day after strangling on a cord left dangling from a treadmill at her Phoenix, AZ home.

The treadmill wasn’t turned on, but clearly the cord was still dangerous. Normally such cords are clipped at one end to a treadmill user, so if the person falls, the cord will pull out of the machine at the other end and turn it off. In this case, little Exodus Tyson’s weight apparently wasn’t enough to pull out the cord, which instead became a noose.

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Are swimming pools inherently dangerous places? Try asking the 24 Houston children who have drowned in pool accidents so far this year — two more than in all of 2007. Their silence speaks volumes.

Even in shallow ends, pools may be too deep for some children to stand with their head above water, and many pools also have a deep end of more than six feet. Pools also may lack sufficient means, such as ladders, for children or anyone to climb out of the water readily.

In nighttime hours, pools also may be poorly illuminated, if they’re lit at all, making it harder to spot a swimmer in distress. And most pools don’t tend to have lifeguards, but if anything just a sign alerting you to what’s already obvious: No lifeguard on duty. (more…)

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