The BBC recently reported that British Prime Minister Tony Blair and F1 racing legend Michael Schumacher have been talking. The two want to but an end to crashes that result in highway deaths. Traffic deaths kill more young men than any other cause, except HIV/AIDS.
To put the problem in perspective, the BBC notes that 1,200,000 people are killed each year in traffic accidents. Of those, 400,000 are under 25 years of age. 66,000 people are seriously injured in traffic accidents every day as well. In Africa, BBC claims that 70% of the children injured are providing the main source of income for the family. Such injury can be devastating to the injured and those dependent upon the income.
Photo courtesy BMW.
Schumacher proposes the “Make the Roads Safe” campaign. Aside from the obvious goal, the aim of the summit/conference/meeting/rendezvous would to bring nations together to enact legislation and program that would decrease the accident rate.
At BTKM, we think that specific objectives should be laid out. This could include:
1) Mandatory training for all drivers. Even experienced drivers could benefit from additional training. Take the U.S. for example, where virtually no Americans are trained to drive at speeds in excess of 75 miles per hour. In such instance, the real danger is not the speed it is the inability of the driver to cope with the speed and anticipate and react to problems in the road ahead.
2) Mandatory testing. Drivers of all ages, whether they are 16, 66, or 106 years of age should go through specific and credible testing every other year. This assures that the drivers continue forth in good health and well being towards other drivers.
3) Improved awareness and engineering at car markers. All automakers must be aware of the need to improve safety to the public on both sides of the windscreen. Government must work to encourage companies to build safer cars. In addition, government must provide encouragement and incentive to buy newer cars, which are safer and which must be equipped with passive and active safety devices.
4) All cars currently on the road must go through tedious and complete checks to determine car safety. This would include visual and mechanical inspection by approved departments of motor vehicles safety in the respective localities. Cars failing to meet these strict requirements shall required to be fixed, updated, or removed from road use.
5) Governments must provide assurance that all roads are properly maintained and made safe. Roads being build or refurbished for future use shall be capable of holding cars traveling at distances in excess for 155 miles per hour.
6) All governments and automakers should meet annually to discuss improvements to the regulations. Audits should be conducted in all localities annually to assure compliance with regulations set forth at the summits.
This may not be the end all, be all of road safety but there is no doubt that with the enactment of these rules alone, fatalities and serious injury on roads can be significantly reduced. We will never be able to eliminate all road deaths but prudent and reasonable resolutions like the ones outlined below can lead to better prevention.
Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6583151.stm
