Traffic laws and the severity with which they’re enforced, vary widely from state to state.  So do the fatalities resulting from traffic accidents. In a recent study, Diana Silver, a public health researcher at New York University’s Steinhardt School, and her team discovered that the top quartile of strictest states were in the lowest quartile for traffic accidents. Inversely, those that were in the lowest quartile for strictness, had the highest rates of traffic fatalities. The research shows a clear pattern. With 34,000 people killed on American roads annually, it’s time for the states at the bottom to take a cue from the ones that have it right.