On Mon, 8 May 2006, Adrian Tupper wrote:
Tom Anderson wrote in
.li:
On Sun, 7 May 2006, Adrian Tupper wrote:
David Hansen wrote in
:
A sense of proportion is necessary. Ten people a day are killed on
UK roads.
Exactly. For some reason we tolerate loss of life on roads more than
pretty well anything else I can think of.
IMNERHO, because (a) the deaths are spread out in time and space, and
so don't seem like a single problem and (b) we all [1] know that to do
something about it, we'd have to change our own habits, or at least put
up with greater restrictions on our own lives; these factors combine to
enable us to ignore the problem very efficiently.
[1] Those of us who drive motor vehicles on the highway, anyway.
We're all complicit? Yes, I suppose so. But some of us try very hard
to minimise risk.
I was thinking more along the lines of intrusive safety measures; if we
valued human life more than our own convenience, we'd impose blanket 10
mph speed limits in towns, and enforce them, enforce all existing
safety-related rules properly, punish all driving offences by
disqualification, re-test everyone every five years, etc. To do that, we'd
have to pay more tax, put up with agonisingly slow drives, and forego
those minor infractions most of us commit. But we don't, so we haven't.
Others go 10mph or much more above speed limits, drink alcohol before,
use mobile phones during, fail to slow down in poor weather and
countless other misdemeanours.
Very true. I salute your adult approach to driving.
IIRC drink and drugs account for something like half the road deaths, or
contribute to them or something.
Hmm, hadn't heard that statistic. Let me see ... according to:
http://www.ias.org.uk/factsheets/drink-driving.pdf
Alcohol is involved in one in five road deaths; according to:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/group...504644-05.hcsp
Class A drugs and marijuana are involved in 6% and 12% respectively of
deaths, although if we're anything like the US:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/drving.htm
Most of those cases will involve alcohol too.
tom
--
There's no future.