Re: NIP arrived.

In article <42f1da99$0$13706$ed9e5944@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"Christian McArdle" <cmcardle75@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> > You're still having difficulty in understanding what some of us are on
> about
> > aren't you? I'll try to help.
>
> No, I understand completely. I just think it is counter productive.
>
> > With current language usage it is common for people to say that the cause
> > of a collision is/was a "dangerous road" when in reality the road is
> > inanimate, it simply sits there with all it's markings and other
> > paraphanalia.
>
> I think this is a non-problem. I've never heard anyone say that a crash,
> even in a poorly designed ill-conceived stretch of road is not the drivers'
> fault.

I gave you an example. You choose to ignore it.

> > The argument that I and others are proposing is that instead of a supposed
> > "dangerous road" being blamed that the emphasis is changed to encouraaging
> > people to accept their own fallability and the likelihood that they will
> > foul up and that they should observe the road ahead more and take greater
> > care when negotiating the variable hazards thereon.
>
> Yes, and my suggestion is that such a method is utterly ineffective, as it
> doesn't reach the 99.999% of similiarly incompetent drivers who are yet to
> crash, whilst it demonstrably reduces the pressure to improve road layout.

Who says it doesn't reach them? If the news report had said that the
driver had royally screwed up through poor observation and the result is
that he and his passeneger are now dead, it might at least make people
think a bit more. Instead, he said that the road was dangerous despite
efforts to improve it. The implication is clearly that the road is the
problem and that drivers mustn't blame themselves if they get into
trouble.

> > The reporter apparently said that the road continued to be dangerous with
> > no mention of the behaviour of the driver whose ill-timed manouvre was
> > the direct cause.
>
> The problem was the reporter's erroneous opinion, not the language he used
> to express it.

Bollocks. Great big hairy bollocks. It is precisely the choice of
language that is the problem. It is that language that conveys the
message to the viewers.

> > The road played no part in the incident (other than by being there and
> > being used for its intended purpose), the behaviour of the driver
> > pulling out of the side turning did, how is it the road that is
> > "dangerous"?
>
> If it had been a roundabout, the car the twat hit wouldn't have been
> travelling so fast, possibly leading to reduced death and injury to innocent
> (and guilty) parties.

The "twat" didn't hit anything. He turned right out of a side road (that
is "protected" by a speed camera) across the path of a LGV that was
travelling at 40mph (let's for the sake of argument assume that the
lorry driver is not stupid enough to have missed the camera, the
junction signs and class of road that he is on) despite good sight lines
in both directions.

--
Mark Foster, Brighton, Sussex, UK
E-mail: m.e.fosterREMOVEMEFIRST@xxxxxxxxxxxx
PGP Fingerprint: 3342 C02C 7BE8 3FE4 AAC5 8BB2 03B7 9263 DDF2 04C1
--------------------------------------------------
"There are no such useless words as, 'I didn't have a chance.'"
[Driving, HMSO]
.

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