Re: 30 days in the hole [was: I ate a sandwich in a car inthe UK]

["Bruce Aukerman" <Bruce@mannlawfirm.com>]

>>> Phil Payne <quk@isham-research.demon.co.uk> 08/22/98 12:49PM >>>

>We therefore know the exact moment a family of five coming the other
way died.<

Very sad, indeed.  A tragic example can be brought up for everything WE think should be
outlawed.  The anti-gun lobby has used that crock for years in the US.
Car phones are apparently no exception.

>Anyone driving a vehicle who diverts 1% of their attention away from
that task - bearing in mind the consequences of their inattention -
deserves everything the law can throw at them.  This isn't a "personal
freedom" issue - the family coming the other way has rights, too.<

hmmmm.  Choose the system you like, but glass houses are a b*tch to live in. 
Couple of friends chatting in the car; a pint or two; tuning the radio, 
gunning for the next turn before the red car gets there,
all most likely fail the 1% test.  You propose 100% attention, 100% of the time.  
I say it is an Impossible standard to expect and to enforce.  Disagree?  
Then I say you have either never driven with a crying baby in the car,
or you are the only person in the free world that pulled over each time he / she cried.    

>You want to take risks?  Go on a track day.  Go mountaineering (though
even there it's largely a team activity).  Go hang-gliding.<

I don't contend that you accept the risk of all that may occur when an oncoming idiot 
decides to show his colors---simply because you are out on the road.
I do contend though that if you want safer [not safe, just safer] roads, you don't focus
on that which will cause injury in only 1% of accidents, while ignoring the bigger picture.
You want less injuries in auto collisions, which will occur?  Build crashworthy autos and actually test
them for real world collisions.  You want less wrecks?  Teach people to actually drive.  Simply
because the UK requires you to test in a standard shift car in order to be licensed to drive one
does not mean you won't have a moron behind the wheel.  Rather, you have a moron that 
knows how to shift, so what?


Bruce