The Privatization of Roads and Highways - Ludwig von Mises Institute

17
Who is Responsible
for Traffic Deaths?
Let us posit, if only for argument’s sake, 1 that the cause of
road fatalities is governmental mismanagement, and not
the usual litany of explanations (e.g., speeding, drunk
driving, vehicle malfunction, driver error, bad weather, etc.)
Some 40,000 people lose their lives each year on U.S. highways. 2
Is the government, under these assumptions, responsible for
them all? One criticism of this thesis is that bureaucratic management
is not at all so responsible, for if the state were not in
charge of managing vehicular transportation arteries, then private
enterprise would do so. In this case, we would have to subtract
the number of fatalities under these alternative institutional
arrangements from present statistics. Then, central planning
would be liable for either fewer deaths, if under market conditions
fewer people would die, or, perhaps, none at all if more
fatalities occurred under these conditions. For example, if under
1Many of the other chapters in this book make precisely this case. Here,
then, we merely assume it to be true.
2For the official statistics, see http://www.publicpurpose.com/hwyfatal57+.htm.
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