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Violent Nogales, Son., gets travel alert

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We applaud the U.S. State Department for alerting American travelers about potential dangers in Mexico. Safety is always on the minds of those who travel to unfamiliar places near and far.

However, we wish some of the government's warnings were more specific. Blanket statements have a way of being frightening rather than informative.

Specific data about incidents involving Americans abroad would help travelers better assess their risks and make informed decisions.

On Tuesday, the State Department issued a six-month alert for travel into Mexico. We found one line in the notice particularly chilling:

That's all that was said about the harassment incidents.

There were no figures given on the number of incidents for each area that would let travelers know if Route 15 is relatively safer or more dangerous.

For instance, if there were 100 reported harassment incidents in Mexico involving Americans and two occurred on Route 15, Arizonans might be more willing to make a trip. If, however, 20 occurred on the Nogales-Hermosillo highway, more might decide to stay home.

By lumping Route 15 in with the other Mexican areas and making a blanket statement about harassment, people are left wondering whether it's safe to travel or not.

It's been our experience that Route 15 between Nogales and Hermosillo seems safe. The rough highway can be jarring, but that's another matter.

Two people who frequent the highway also told the Star's Brady McCombs that including the road in the travel alert was unnecessary.

"I don't agree with calling that a violent route," Georgina Orantes, a hotel employee in San Carlos, Sonora, told McCombs. "I would say they are exaggerating a bit in the alert."

By including the highway in the alert, some people are inevitably going to conclude that it's dangerous and may not make a trip they otherwise might have taken.

We were glad to see the State Department mention at the top of the alert that "millions of U.S. citizens safely visit Mexico each year, including thousands who cross the land border every day for study, tourism or business."

The State Department has a responsibility to help Americans stay safe, and travel alerts are a key part of that effort.

However, whenever possible, it should give more information — not less — so that it doesn't frighten potential travelers unnecessarily.

Providing incident data to go along with the alerts would be a good place to start.