Backing up

A spike in the road toll over the Christmas break has sparked the usual debate on road safety. The local motoring association is bleating how there’s not enough being spent on the roads.

The police are making daily appearances with statements like,

‘We are urging motorists to be more careful’

“The carnage must stop."

Meanwhile the state liberal party would publish something on their website if it weren’t sabotaged by hackers.

Motorists are being targeted for all sorts of crimes. In terms of contributing factors the list and percentages are almost as out of control as the number of fatalities. 60% of deaths involve alcohol, 80% high speed, 40% inexperience, 30% drugs, 25% didn’t eat their vegetables…

Actually I predict a new trend – the baby boomers! I believe an increased number of aged drivers will soon appear in the stats and possibly exceed the 16-19 year old bracket.

Back to my point - The safety campaigns have been unyielding and my anecdotal observations are that we are more careful than ever. There would have to be far less speeding and drink-driving than ever before. Vehicles offer passenger protection that would have defied all imagination 25 years ago. So why are so many lives being lost? (Though in comparison tobacco and prostate cancer might make the figures pale into insignificance)

All except for one factor – there’s a load more cars doing a load more km everyday. Risk is increasing with congestion and exposure. Unless the number of motorists and distance travelled is limited you can only expect worse consequences.

I’m tired of the blame game and over-policing putting pressure on the motorist. Back off boffins.