KIDS GET KILLED
WRECK-LESS DRIVING©
by Gunther Doerfert, Auto Safety Columnist
KIDS GET KILLED
BLACK DIAMOND, WA: Our reader and mother of school age children, Effie Z., tells us that many more children are killed as pedestrians by careless auto drivers than are killed in school shootings. So, she asks, why so little media uproar over the fact that more kids are killed by being hit by a car than the total killed by E.coli in bad food, accidental shootings, and auto air bags? Because of a few school and work shootings some persons are demanding all guns be removed from American society.
This raises the idea that if banning guns will save people’s lives then would it be all the more effective to ban motor vehicles? As many persons are killed annually in U.S. crashes as the number of heroes killed in the Vietnam mess. Common sense, however, leads one to understand that our world is full of products which can kill if misused by us humans. More intelligent would be greater efforts to teach us how to use these wonderful inventions with safety to ourselves and to others.
That is what this column is all about - making motoring safer by .learning the best ways to drive a potentially dangerous vehicle. We advocate, too, that those persons who cannot or will not drive safely be banned from driving. Makes more sense, does it not, than banning all vehicles because of a few violators? Same goes for bureaucrats forcing us to drive small lightweight cars because they do less damage to other vehicles in crashes. This overlooks the greater harm done to these small autos and occupants when hit by large commercial vehicles. Of course, the oil shortage situation modifies the anti small vehicle stance.
We started out this column discussing children hit by autos. Many, if not most, occur on residential streets where kids are likely to playfully run and fail to pay attention to nearby cars. Should we ban autos from these streets or should we do more to teach safety to both the children, their parents and the drivers?
GHD194 all rights reserved
by Gunther Doerfert, Auto Safety Columnist
KIDS GET KILLED
BLACK DIAMOND, WA: Our reader and mother of school age children, Effie Z., tells us that many more children are killed as pedestrians by careless auto drivers than are killed in school shootings. So, she asks, why so little media uproar over the fact that more kids are killed by being hit by a car than the total killed by E.coli in bad food, accidental shootings, and auto air bags? Because of a few school and work shootings some persons are demanding all guns be removed from American society.
This raises the idea that if banning guns will save people’s lives then would it be all the more effective to ban motor vehicles? As many persons are killed annually in U.S. crashes as the number of heroes killed in the Vietnam mess. Common sense, however, leads one to understand that our world is full of products which can kill if misused by us humans. More intelligent would be greater efforts to teach us how to use these wonderful inventions with safety to ourselves and to others.
That is what this column is all about - making motoring safer by .learning the best ways to drive a potentially dangerous vehicle. We advocate, too, that those persons who cannot or will not drive safely be banned from driving. Makes more sense, does it not, than banning all vehicles because of a few violators? Same goes for bureaucrats forcing us to drive small lightweight cars because they do less damage to other vehicles in crashes. This overlooks the greater harm done to these small autos and occupants when hit by large commercial vehicles. Of course, the oil shortage situation modifies the anti small vehicle stance.
We started out this column discussing children hit by autos. Many, if not most, occur on residential streets where kids are likely to playfully run and fail to pay attention to nearby cars. Should we ban autos from these streets or should we do more to teach safety to both the children, their parents and the drivers?
GHD194 all rights reserved
posted by WRECK-LESS at Sunday, January 06, 2008
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