In article , andrew fildes <afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes
All. I arrived in Australia in '72. The road death score for Victoria
was around 1000 per year. Now with 2-3 times the vehicle miles
travelled by Victorians the rate is 3-400. The first downward trend
was with seatbelts.
That I doubt.
The first significant downward trends in road deaths worldwide resulted
from the work of a Ford employee (and short term Company president)
better known for his life terminating policies as a US government
employee, one Robert McNamara, fromer US Secretary of State for Defence
under several administrations throughout the 60s.
Yes, its strange but true - he probably did save more lives than he
ended!
Volvo's contribution of the free licensed three-point seat harness came
almost a decade later.
Here in the UK, when seat belt wearing became compulsory for front
seat occupants, late 70s (?), the number of pedestrian and cyclist
deaths significantly increased. Apparently the effect of the belt
was to make the driver feel more secure and hence many unconsciously
drove closer to the limits of their ability.
All Volvo drivers, I'll bet.
No - a generic tendency. Unless exceptional, you probably suffer from
it as well - note Julian Davies' response earlier which expresses the
problem admirably and independently of this context. Yes it does make
*YOU* feel safer, but is that safe for everyone concerned?
Awful as that is, you simply cannot extrapolate from one example.
I am not extrapolating from a single example. I am merely pointing out
that not all safety campaigns are actually safety inducing.
About 3 years ago I encountered a mobile police speed trap which was
set up at the rear of a parked, unidentified white service van. Nothing
particularly wrong with that and, given that it was parked within 200yds
of a school, one might conclude that it was quite justified.
The problem was that it was also within 25yds of a pedestrian crossing
and, although I was travelling within the speed limit at the time, I
looked long and hard at my speedo to be sure and, as a consequence, had
to brake violently to avoid a child on the crossing on their way to
school.
Fortunately, nobody was hurt, but that was luck rather than judgement.
I wrote to the Chief Constable of Essex to complain about the
irresponsible siting of their speed trap and, whilst I have never
received an acknowledgement, I have never seen the police speed trap at
that location since.
I also wrote to the local council when this particular crossing was
constructed raising my concerns about its location so close to a speed
trap and a junction, but its development continued. Unfortunately a
child may now have died from what was a predictable consequence of
over-zealous traffic calming measures.
Sadly, this is not an isolated freak occurrence and I have heard of
other similar cases.
Kennedy
Never, ever put your trust in anecdotal evidence.
This is documented evidence, *NOT* anecdotal!
Take a long hard look at the safety measures you see being introduced.
Just because they work in general does not mean that are applicable in
all situations. Whilst I tried to warn of the danger in this situation,
I do feel real guilt about having let the case drop under pressure from
alleged experts who have supervised the introduction of what I know to
be similar deadly schemes across the country.
Do you have unlit one sided road blocks in Victoria? More non-fatal
accidents caused by their introduction here than any other traffic
calming measure but, because the incident is usually an insurance damage
case, they never feature on statistics and are considered a great
success!
--
Kennedy
I want to die peacefully in my sleep, just like my grandfather.
Not kicking and screaming like the passengers in his car!!
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