I can appreciate the need to make something sound unique, especially if you've invested a lot of time and effort in an investigative report. But this number doesn't have quite the impact I think the newspaper would like it to have:
A newspaper investigation finds that the Indiana Toll Road ranks first in the state among highways in deaths per mile.The South Bend Tribune reports that 19 people were killed on the Toll Road in 2005 and eleven have died so far this year on the 157-mile highway.
More than ten (m) million vehicles use the highway every year. The speed limit is posted at 70 miles-per-hour, but many motorists go faster.
That "ten million" figure is just thrown out there as if it has no significance. But wouldn't I have a better idea of how safe or dangerous the highway is if the traffic volume were factored in? The Indiana portion of I-69, I believe, is about the same length as the toll road. What volume per year does it have, with how many fatalities? That would give me something I could really compare.
