Re: No Skipweaselling Please - We're Welsh

The message <483aa3f0$0$16940$c3e8da3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
from JonG <news@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> contains
these words:


How many people on his patch get killed or seriously injured by knives,
compared to the number who get KSI by motor vehicles? Even by the most
conservative of the credible estimates of the contribution of speeding
to fatal RTAs, any one of us is still far more likely to be killed in a
speeding related incident than in a knife-related one.

Ah, the trouble is that the impression is that road deaths are
accidents, when in fact they're almost always caused by negligence.

Perfectly ordinary people set out with no intention of killing anyone,
but nor do they set out having every intention of driving safely - they
just drive "normally". Driving is such an everyday activity that few
people give it anything like the attention it deserves, which increases
their reliance on the "there's never been a car round that corner
before" attitude.

The other aspect that drivers don't give enough weight to is the erratic
behaviour of other road users. An over-reliance on their ability to get
/out/ of trouble rather than avoiding getting /into/ it in the first
place leads to situations where in the end they get into something from
which they can't extricate themselves. I don't hear it so often these
days, but a frequent comment was "I need a powerful engine so I can
accellerate out of trouble", which is almost exclusively bollocks.
Insurance companies don't penalise powerful cars for nothing - they know
damned well that most drivers of powerful vehicles use that power to get
themselves into trouble not out of it.

And that brings me on to another point (and ninthly!); most drivers
think they're good drivers. And most are, provided they're in situations
with which they're familiar and under comfortable conditions. It's at
the edges where it comes unravelled, and with modern cars it's easy not
to get anywhere near the edges until it's too late. Modern cars let you
feel it's OK to take corners at speed, to brake late, to drive fast in
the dark because the headlights are powerful. However, when it turns out
there's a patch of gravel on the bend, or a diesel spill on the approach
to the bend, or a horse round the bend it's too late to find out that
though the /car/ has fewer restrictions, the /world/ hasn't got any less
forgiving.

Imagine we lived in a country where firearms were common. There would be
well recognised rules about how you handled them in public - not
pointing them at other people even when unloaded, keeping the safety
catch on unless pointed downrange, keeping them unloaded when not in use
- that sort of thing. There would of course be gun owners who thought
they knew better and that the rules didn't apply to them - they'd be the
ones who point their guns at their friends while playing, the sort who
kept their loaded weapons in the glovebox of their car, the sort who
would say things like "I'm good with guns, I know what I'm doing" or
"I've never had an accident" (clearly, since they're still alive -
they've just failed to add "yet") even though the rules applied to
everyone. They'd be the sort we'd all steer clear of because we'd know
they were the sort who'd end up having a serious accident.

Drivers who think they know better are in the same class. They're
handling a dangerous piece of equipment with less than reasonable
respect. They come up with loads of spurious justifications to excuse
their behaviour, but fail to realise that the rules are there for
/everyone/ and that they are, in general, there for a good reason. Of
course there will be places where the rules feel onerous. Were I a gun
owner I might well feel that it would be easier and quicker for me to
keep a round chambered at all times. Some gun owners might - but I know
which sort I prefer to be and I know which sort I prefer to have around
me.

Austin - if this feels like a rant aimed at you, it isn't. But if the
cap fits, wear it.

--
Skipweasel
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
.

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