Car culture recklessly puts all of us at risk
From Thursday’s Globe and Mail
November 8, 2007 at 9:50 AM EST
Excellent article on road safety and the risks we are all subject to.
Enforcement of traffic laws is not a priority with our police forces, nor with their political masters.
Everybody wants to catch bad guys such as murderers and be hailed as a hero, not hand out tickets and be spat upon.
Politicians puff out their chests and talk about getting tough on crime, but they refuse to bolster the budgets of traffic squads or to implement sound public health measures such as photo radar.
There are almost 3,000 deaths in motor vehicle crashes in Canada each year, along with 18,000 debilitating injuries. By comparison, there are about 600 homicides.
Recent shootings have got a lot of attention, even to the extent of examining the need for a Metropolitan Police force instead of municipal arrangements – something I have advocated here a while ago. But the carnage on our streets does not seem to qualify for the same attention. A cop gets shot and it’s a tragedy with lots of coverage. Someone dies in an “RTA”, it doesn’t even get a mention – unless its something really unusual like a bus rolling over. An idiot running a red light a t-boning another car will not even be noticed by the local free papers.
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