The recent death of a young boy aged 8 on a walk to school as a motorist ploughed into him, his 5 siblings and mother in a scene not dissimilar to that of the advert of some guy wiping out 20+ kids in similar fashion on TV. Whose at fault? The driver is the obvious choice he hit them, he didn't expect the unexpected.
Another tragic incident that was on the news not so long ago was a motorcyclist that died after a collision with a car at 100mph. The driver of the car got 200 hours community service for pulling out in front of the motorcyclist who happened to be filming himself 'doing the ton' and overtaking cars and vans at speeds only fit for the manx TT. His mother allowed the police to show the footage to the general public she claimed her son "bought the GoPro to film other road users to highlight traffic safety" nobody had told her that GoPros were made with the purpose for recording yourself doing extreme things and no doubt the motorcyclist was looking forward to getting home to watching his footage of him ripping it up on busy afternoon at full tilt. If a motorcycle is travelling towards you at 100mph+ with a reaction time of a 1/3 of a second the bike has already travelled 50 meters before you even begin to react to it, and that doesn't take into account braking distances and all the rest! neither car or motorcyclist had any chance of avoiding that one, and personally I was shocked the driver faced punishment for his part. Neither motorcyclist nor car expected the unexpected.
How can we expect the unexpected? cause that's just it, its the unexpected. The DOE needs to seriously consider alternative approaches to curbing the deaths of all road users. Wasting Tax payers money on these adverts that don't do anything to cut the death rate. What about speed checks? a hair dryer in a 30 mph zone picking up a car doing 32 mph isn't great either. On the rural roads where one can legally do 60 mph is where people are getting the short end of the stick. 60 mph is too fast in most situations to react when the unexpected happens, and a head on collision between two vehicles at 60 is the equivalent of driving into a wall at 120 mph.
A rural speed limit of 40-45 mph would be a good start, that would save lives. It gives the driver time to slow down when they come across the unexpected and the person they hit a much greater chance of survival.
By the end of the year I will have covered the best part of 13,000 miles on my bicycle and I can tell you on a number of occasions I have been disturbingly close to being another tally to the grim statistic of road deaths. I have been literally missed by inches from cars and lorries misjudging my speed and their own. If I recorded half of it and showed it to my mother she would lock up my bikes and throw away the key. She has already lived through the death of a loved one, which was one too many.
The unexpected will happen you can't and won't plan for it no matter what the adverts tell you. What you can do is make the unexpected a little less worse for the person at the bad end of it. Some people will think I am missing the point and that's what expecting the unexpected is all about. How many of us sit on the motorway and look at our speed and think I'm doing 70 I'm good, and if the speed limit was 80 or 90 we would feel no different. Take that same analogy to rural roads and we look at our speed limit and think I am doing 60, I am legally allowed to do this speed all is well. We will continue to push the boundaries to the rules that are set out in front of us.
I doubt anything in regards to rules of the road will change and my daily death dodge will continue, but I can drive my car slower and will make the effort to do so and I encourage everyone else to.
Unlike most people I don't believe in the promise of an afterlife, and I'm fine with that. Life to me is precious as I believe the one I have now is all we get. I want to spend as much time doing the things I enjoy and spending time with the great people in my life. All being well I will die of a heart attack aged 80 pushing my pacemaker too hard up over Spelga on a Sunday afternoon. I don't wish to be the unexpected.
If a particular driver had been going a little slower, I may have had a chance to get to know my father.
