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Making travel 'safer' is a dangerous game Making travel 'safer' is a dangerous game
(about 2 months later)
Travel is dangerous. It has been since the dawn of time. Two horrific accidents in the past few days suggest that neither railways nor roads are wholly safe. A Spanish high-speed train goes too fast into a bend and 79 people die. An Italian coach crashes through a "safety" barrier and plunges off a viaduct, leaving at least 37 people dead. Our response is instinctive. Who is to blame and how can such things be prevented?Travel is dangerous. It has been since the dawn of time. Two horrific accidents in the past few days suggest that neither railways nor roads are wholly safe. A Spanish high-speed train goes too fast into a bend and 79 people die. An Italian coach crashes through a "safety" barrier and plunges off a viaduct, leaving at least 37 people dead. Our response is instinctive. Who is to blame and how can such things be prevented?
Sympathy for the bereaved should not stop clear thinking. For a start, these are accidents. No one intended them to happen. True "blame" attaches to those immediately responsible, which short of technical malfunction means the vehicle drivers. Yet we tend instinctively to sympathise with drivers – people like us – and seek fault with machinery or someone in authority.Sympathy for the bereaved should not stop clear thinking. For a start, these are accidents. No one intended them to happen. True "blame" attaches to those immediately responsible, which short of technical malfunction means the vehicle drivers. Yet we tend instinctively to sympathise with drivers – people like us – and seek fault with machinery or someone in authority.
This is understandable but not always sensible. Speed can be made "dangerously safe". Few would really want a 150mph train with no driver, or one with so little to do he can go to sleep. We expect some human agency to guard against the unforeseen, such as being able to override an automatic braking system in an emergency.This is understandable but not always sensible. Speed can be made "dangerously safe". Few would really want a 150mph train with no driver, or one with so little to do he can go to sleep. We expect some human agency to guard against the unforeseen, such as being able to override an automatic braking system in an emergency.
Built-in danger is part of safety theory. There is evidence that the more drivers are distracted by restrictions, signals and signs, the more they "delegate" risk to the regulator, and the less attention they pay to other road users, such as cyclists and pedestrians. There is a continuing argument over whether seatbelts and crash helmets merely make road users go faster and thus increase risk.Built-in danger is part of safety theory. There is evidence that the more drivers are distracted by restrictions, signals and signs, the more they "delegate" risk to the regulator, and the less attention they pay to other road users, such as cyclists and pedestrians. There is a continuing argument over whether seatbelts and crash helmets merely make road users go faster and thus increase risk.
The more secure we make travel, the more we risk making it more dangerous. We must find a balance and accept that accidents will happen. We must never pretend travel can be made wholly safe because that is not true. But then, as the statistics tell us, the more dangerous place to be is in the home.The more secure we make travel, the more we risk making it more dangerous. We must find a balance and accept that accidents will happen. We must never pretend travel can be made wholly safe because that is not true. But then, as the statistics tell us, the more dangerous place to be is in the home.
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