Mayor: SafeClear's working! Let's expand it!

We've always known that Mayor Bill White really likes the SafeClear mandatory towing program. But who'da thunk — the program might actually be reducing the number of freeway traffic accidents in the city by getting wrecks out of the way. White announced that freeway crashes in Houston are down 20 percent since 2003, which he attributes to the often-controversial towing plan:

“We’ve all experienced rubbernecking. We’ve all seen what happens when there’s an accident in front and then somebody doesn’t hit their brakes in time and it creates a back-up. This is just common sense.”

We're willing to go along with that. Since SafeClear started, we have seen many less cars stranded in traffic or on the side of the road, and we really don't get stuck behind rubberneckers as often as we used to. On the other hand, Houstonians will rubberneck at anything, so it's a bit hard to tell.

White's newest idea for is to get wrecked or disabled 18-wheelers towed under SafeClear, too. White pointed to the fact that clearing 18-wheelers can sometimes take hours, creating "incredible delays." It's not clear how SafeClear would change that much, especially if a truck was leaking hazardous materials. More details to come, we're sure.