Thankful To Still Be Alive on Black Friday; Map Shows Oahu Traffic Death Locations, Including Where Dozens Died While Crossing City Streets

Each square shows the location of a traffic fatality 2001-2009.

We managed this Thanksgiving to avoid the fate of San Francisco Chronicle sports columnist Scott Ostler. He’s the newest member of the Cornball Hall of Fame (his description) thanks to his what-I’m-thankful-for-on-Thanksgiving column published yesterday. (He didn’t mention it, but he should be especially thankful he’s no longer the sports editor of The Lompoc Record, as he was in the early ‘70s when we both lived in the Flower Seed Capital of the World.)

Maybe we can get a future HOF nomination for expressing thanks to not be shopping on the day after Thanksgiving. For us, the “black” in Black Friday has a dark connotation and nothing to do with the bottom line. Black Friday is now entrenched in the language, along with other “new” phrases and words that weren’t in use all that long ago – like “lede” to describe a news story’s “lead” paragraph, and the ubiquitous “no problem.”

So in keeping with the “dark” symbolism of Black Friday, we’re posting a map showing the location of road fatalities in the USA 2001-2009, along with a Key to the map, at right. Oahu had three hit-and-run incidents less than a week ago, including the fatality of a Hawaii Public University student on the Windward Side. A few days later, another pedestrian was struck while in a crosswalk, this time in Kalihi.

Hawaii leads the nation in the senior pedestrian death rate. In just the past few days while driving through town we’ve seen multiple red-light runners and several failures to yield to pedestrians.

Another phrase now in common use is the can’t-we-all-just-get-along question. Do you suppose we all can be more attentive to traffic laws and each other while driving and walking this holiday season? We all want to be around to express our thanks for being alive in 2012 -- don't we?