Charles “Charlie” McMillan the former LANL director was killed in car crash today in Los Alamos. The driving in the town is just crazy now and there seems to be more and more accidents and really aggressive drivers.
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https://ladailypost.com/los-alamos-national-laboratory-issues-statement-on-death-of-former-director-dr-charles-charlie-mcmillan/
The comments sections on the papers just goes on about the brutal traffic in Los Alamos. This is the second car death this year and dozens of injuries, every week there is another crash. This was the second crash this week.
The drivers are really aggressive now. It started after about 2022 with mass increase in lab employees. The employees are different type now as well, lots of pickup trucks, baseball hats, and middle fingers. Also lost of sports cars, and cheap street racers. In fact there is now racing in Los Alamos in the early mornings. You can hear the cars screaming.
Traffic isn’t “crazy” at that intersection at 5:00am. This was something else.
While DOE doesn’t have control over the traffic outside of the gates, traffic inside of the gates at a number of sites has certainly become more and more dangerous. As a pedestrian I thought it was just our lab, but when we collaborate with our partners many times a group of us will take a walk together onsite and the comments usually come down to your drivers are just as bad as ours. As far as entry on site many times at multiple sites badge check will back up traffic into local roadways causing some harry situations.
At 5am is when you get the high speed racers. You can hear the cars screaming.
As of 9/15/24, according to the Los Alamos Police Department (LAPD), in reference to the 9/6/24 accident, “The accident and cause are still under investigation by LAPD’s crash team.”
Speed is a contributing factor in many serious accidents -- braking distance increases, and kinetic energy goes as the square of velocity. Younger drivers have an increased rate of serious accidents while older people are more likely to die in any given collision because of their less robust health.
https://www.science.org.au/curious/technology-future/physics-speeding-cars
https://aaafoundation.org/rates-motor-vehicle-crashes-injuries-deaths-relation-driver-age-united-states-2014-2015/
By the way, there is a common infection that affects the brain, and there is some evidence that this increases the chance of having a car accident:
https://youtu.be/tsW2vCathDc?si=SZl3A_ViMWb8zu0I
If you think is bad right now just wait for the new apartments complex to get finished. Then add that with the affordable housing policy the county is implementing; more people more cars. Yeah traffic is totally crazy. and the county headless for letting the lab get away with bringing so many people into this village without any planning.
These are good traffic videos too, illustrating some of the subtle causes of traffic jams and accidents which have become known through research:
https://youtu.be/MtwY9xKfaYo?si=l9VPaJwqEy_q2qQf
https://youtu.be/iHzzSao6ypE?si=LHd3WwWv7VR7gCrB
https://youtu.be/Suugn-p5C1M?si=ZsRS_gFceZuIFoY-
I live in the area that would have street racing and I am up for the whole morning pretty much every day. There is no street racing. Who in the town would do it? I know the intersection where the accident occurred and the traffic there at 5:00 AM. The comments above are not relevant. As to traffic in general in LA, yes in rush hour it has gotten as bad as on St Michael's and St Francis in Santa Fe. I know because I have had medical appointments recently in Sante Fe. It would be nice if something could be done. I suspect the above are just antilab expansion and using the traffic issue as an arguing point.
I point out those fantastic intersections in Santa Fe at (Cerrillos, St Francis) and down at (St Francis, Rodeo) with the railroad and the whole area at the shopping center. I try not to drive Cerrillos. Let's fix them all. Maybe shut down tourist season. Just block the roads into Santa Fe with locals using a pass.
Ahh, at 5am?
I assume you are referring to me saying I am up for the whole morning. Yes, from about 3:30AM on.
If there is street racing, just get the LA cops on it. Just ask Valley people how effective they are. They constantly complain and I know how the cops treated my son.
5:40 There are more accidents per mile driven at night, partly due to reduced visibility, but also due to driver fatigue, for example see this video:
https://youtu.be/DvKBUDyGQ4A?si=h19qUKwK-LsxLjr4
While they are making the point that driver fatigue can in some cases lead to even worse driving than intoxication with alcohol, of course that is also a particular problem in New Mexico, which has many fatalities per passenger mile than most of the other 49 states:
https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-statistics/detail/state-by-state
I feel enough silliness has been said on this, but of course it is up to Scooby. The problem with nighttime driving is not so much fatigue but DUI. (An example is perhaps the Livermore director.) And yes northern NM has a big problem, especially on the weekends with head ons. The road coming into Chimayo from the west and what used to be US666, the Devils highway, in western NM are two examples. This problem stems a lot from poverty. Poor people drink to forget. But this is irelevant to the recent fatal LA accident. It was at 5:00 and the drivers were just awake from a night's sleep. One of them was probably coming from the motel and maybe did not have a good night's sleep. I know I do not sleep well in a strange bed. So there was an accident. It had nothing to do with bad LA traffic. This is just being raised as an issue to pound on the Lab.
I should also mention that as an educational exercise count the crosses along the highways, say between LA and Santa Fe.
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