This includes those that died because of overdoses. Heroin kills and people should be well aware of this fact. Luckily these deaths are on the decrease. What is sadly on the increase is traffic deaths, and especially those committed intentionally. Very specific factors contribute to hazardous conditions, including driver ignorance and police apathy.
Bike messengers spend more time on bike in traffic than any other group.
We need to fight to be heard and taken seriously by our cities and the media. Traffic deaths will be reduced when human life is valued, cyclists' rights upheld, bike accidents reported properly by police, and when drivers realize that bikes have the same legal rights as cars, that road rage is not seen as a social malady but premeditated assault or murder, when cell phone use while driving is finally outlawed, when pedestrians can't jaywalk with impunity. Couriers being forced to work eleven-hour shifts without lunch is a dangerous condition. The fight for economic stability and job stability is not based on material greed but a desire for safety and well-being. Couriers are safer when they are not forced by poverty to work when injured, when they can afford to keep their bike properly maintained, when they can afford correctional lens or glasses when necessary, when they have enough to eat.