The Time is Now to Go to War
I read, with interest, the recent article, “Best Life-Saving Car Safety Features” by Jacqueline Mitchell, recently featured on Forbes.com.
Driving safely remains one of the last best untapped frontiers for humanity in making a difference in the tens of thousands of needless deaths and literally millions of injuries will have a more positive impact than curing most diseases or ending all wars! The costs are staggering in dollars, but even more so in the emotional cost to those of us left behind.
All of these vehicle-centric safety enhancements reduce our chances of actually dying on our roads, but it is the human operating the vehicle that makes the difference as to these safety assists in the first place.
These so-called accidents are avoidable if we monitor driver behavior and not just trust that we will all do the right thing every time because we are licensed and we know better.
It turns out that President and Nancy Reagan were right after all, but in the wrong war.
We must absolutely say no to bad driving behavior, and yest we trust; but verify.
We get what we inspect, not what we expect.
If you don’t think so, watch how highway behavior changes drastically when a police car enters and then exits a particular road.
The time is now to go to war.
April 17th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Bruce, I’m always glad to see these innovations, but then I worry that we start to depend on them to keep us safe. Our habits can get worse, not better. All of the safety systems in the world won’t defeat simple physics when a heavy object hits another one at high speed.
I’m a bit amused about the Lane Departure Warning System. It tells you when you are changing lanes, but your signal is not on. Good heavens, have you seen anyone using a signal lately on the freeway?
You are right, we all need to be responsible for our own driving habits.