Highways in Oakland, as in much of California, saw much lighter traffic– and less deadly traffic collisions– in the early weeks of the pandemic’s stay-at-home rules.
Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times via Getty Images.
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Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times via Getty Images.
Freeways in Oakland, as in much of California, saw much lighter traffic– and fewer deadly traffic collisions– in the early weeks of the pandemic’s stay-at-home guidelines.
Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times through Getty Images.
On Day 2 of the San Francisco Bay Area’s stay-at-home orders in March, Nohemi Jimenez got into her car in San Pablo, Calif., waved farewell to her 3-year-old boy and drove to her regular Wednesday dialysis consultation.
The roadways were deserted. No traffic. Jimenez states it is hard to confess what she thought next: No traffic suggested no auto accident. Which meant she ‘d be on the waiting list for a kidney transplant even longer.
” I don’t wish to be mean, however I resembled, ‘Oh, my God. No one’s going to pass away,'” she says. “I’m not going to get my transplant.”
Jimenez, who is now 30 years old, was 20 and pregnant with her very first child when doctors found she had been born with only one kidney, and that lone kidney was stopping working. By age 29, doctors informed her she required a brand-new one. It was odd and frightening, she states, waiting on somebody to pass away so she could live.
” You’re just thinking about it,” she says. “It’s sitting in your mind. It just can never ever leave you alone.”
Deaths from motor vehicle crashes and fatal injuries are the greatest source of organs for transplant, accounting for 33%of donations, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, which handles the country’s organ transplant system.
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Nohemi Jimenez at her home in San Pablo, Calif. on April28 Jimenz received her kidney transplant in the middle of the pandemic, however lots of others in requirement are still waiting.
Beth LaBerge/KQED.
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Beth LaBerge/KQED.
But ever because the coronavirus required Californians inside your home, those accidents have declined.
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In April, organ procurement organizations generally see a surge in contributions related to outside, spring break-related activities and travel, but not this year.
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From March 8 to April 11, the number of organ donors who passed away in traffic crashes was down 23?ross the country compared to the very same period in 2015, while donors who passed away in all other kinds of mishaps were down 21%, according to data from UNOS.
” Spring break accidents are almost nonexistent due to the fact that there’s no spring break– beach mishaps, bike mishaps, hunting accidents,” says Janice Whaley, CEO of Donor Network West, which handles organ donations for Northern California