Perspective on Traffic Safety

In terms of adding just a bit of perspective on traffic safety, I thought this article by Kerry Diotte was worth mention:

http://www.calgarysun.com/comment/2009/08/02/10340131-sun.html

In this commentary, Diotte cites some research demontrating that the demonization of speed and drunk driving as the root of traffic safety problems is misplaced. Driver error is actually the root cause of 90% of collisions. From this he queries, why all the resources invested into monitoring fast drivers? He poses what many drivers will consider to be the most obvious answer: the government is looking to generate revenue by conducting speed enforcement. Meaning, speed enforcement is not really about traffic safety, but about taxing citizens. Citing studies and commentary from the National Motorist Association, Diotte agrees that if government is truly interested in lowering crashes on public highways, police should be patrolling for incidents of bad driving, not just incidents of fast driving.

I thought this was an interesting article because it bluntly addressed the multitude of articles suggesting speed and impaired driving are the monster causes of injury and death on Canada's roadways. In fact, just a few pages before Mr. Diotte's article is a commentary titled "High Time To Get Drunks Off the Road":

http://www.calgarysun.com/comment/editorial/2009/08/02/10340111-sun.html


Diotte argues from an intuitively obvious perspective -- that is, I suspect most drivers will concede that the vast majority of close calls have been caused by driver error, failure to pay attention and a lack of due diligence, not speed or drunkeness. Indeed, how many drivers have made lane changes without shoulder checking? How many drivers have been looking for an address and in so doing, followed another vehicle too closely? How many people have zipped through stop signs and yield signs because they were not familiar with the area or just made a near catastrophic mistake?

The point is, whenever human beings participate in anything, the human condition adds to the possibility of error. Take millions of human beings and put them behind the wheel of armored motor cars, and the errors can be devastating. Error doesn't make people bad, or criminal, or immoral -- it just makes them human. If we want to minimize the impact of poor judgment, mistake and bad driving on highways, then it seems Diotte and others are correct, police need to invest more energy into watching for incidents of bad driving, not just fast driving.

David G. Chow
Calgary Criminal Lawyer

www.calgarydefence.com