Utah lawmakers try to respond to rise in road rage deaths.
Hits & Misses
By Katharine Biele @kathybiele
Miss: Road Warriors
Here 's a startling statistic. "Road rage deaths due to gun violence increased by more than 89 percent in 2020-2024, compared to the four years immediately before the COVID-19 pandemic," according to The Trace, an outlet that reports on gun violence. Admittedly, Utah isn't the biggest offender—Texas is. But vehicles are definitely becoming a weapon of first resort when drivers get anxious. The American Psychological Association points to environmental and emotional factors that are setting people off. Now, one state legislator, Centerville Republican Rep. Paul Cutler, has passed a law to study what's happening in Utah. And because it's Utah and the Utah Way, Cutler is working on statistics and asking people to just calm down. He wants to educate drivers about the ramifications of their actions. Just this month, road rage left a 50-year-old man dead. Before we ask everyone to meditate, we might look at the stresses that cause this phenomenon.
Miss: Out in the Cold
We still haven't figured out how to handle homelessness. In the state's first attempt to track homeless deaths, it identified 216 people who died on the streets, The Salt Lake Tribune reported on Oct. 8. That's 10 times the rate of people dying in the general population and is affecting people who are 16 years old and younger. The big takeaway is that these deaths are likely undercounted. More than one-third died from substance abuse, which offers a window to solutions. The state report "outlines some options, such as increasing cooperation between homeless service providers and harm reduction groups that run syringe exchanges or give away free drug-testing materials and opioid overdose-reversal drugs." Maybe this is finally a first step to addressing the problem. You have to know what homelessness looks like before you can change it.
Hit: Deck the Hall
Big sigh of relief—maybe. Abravanel Hall will not be run over by a huge sports complex, unless it will. The Salt Lake County Council passed a resolution to spare the Utah Symphony's home after the Smith Entertainment Group captivated the Salt Lake City Council in a deal for dollars. The city now plans to tax residents and visitors to augment the billionaire developer's sports and entertainment vision. That grand vision originally did not include preserving Abravanel Hall, but public outcry changed that, for the moment. The county owns the facility, and says it will work closely with the Smith group until they figure things out sometime next year. Comments on the Deseret News website weren't hopeful, but the ink on a deal isn't dry yet—"We need leaders who will say: you want to tear down Abravanel, you get no $ and no lease. And make it binding," said one commenter.
About The Author
Katharine Biele
A City Weekly contributor since 1992, Katharine Biele is the informed voice behind our Hits & Misses column. When not writing, you can catch her working to empower voters and defend democracy alongside the League of Women Voters.
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