Accident figures

Now the IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists) is welcoming the 2007 accident figures. 2,946 deaths, 27,774 serious injuries, 217,060 slight injuries. As stated in various posts and articles, the unreported cause of accidents is the law of the road itself. Main road priority imposes inequality and makes roads lethal. So lethal that, as John Adams says, children aren't allowed to cross the road and old people daren't cross them. The figures are cooked. Rules should be tailored to fit human nature. The opposite is the case. When things go wrong, who gets the blame? The devisers of the system? No. They go unquestioned. We get the blame. And we have to bury our dead, tend our wounded, and face more coercive control.

Road deaths

In its press release today, the RAC welcomes the news that 229 fewer people died on UK roads in 2007 than 06. It thinks safety campaigns have helped. 72 fewer young drivers died, but made up 42% of driver deaths. 33% of accidents were caused by inattention; 16% by drink driving. The RAC warns against (though doesn’t attribute any deaths to) mobile phone use. It says there is no room for complacency, and accident rates "can only be tackled by consistent, high-profile enforcement of the law by expert traffic police".

Not a word about rethinking the rules of the road that make roads lethal in the first place.

From the scandalous to the sublime

Another female cyclist, Lisa Pontecorvo, killed at traffic lights. Holloway Rd, junction Fielding Crescent. Crocodile expressions of regret from the officials who preside over our unfit roads.

http://www.islingtongazette.co.uk/content/islington/gazette/news/story.aspx?brand=ISLGOnline&category=news&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=newsislg&itemid=WeED17%20Sep%202008%2010%3A24%3A25%3A097

Sublime, but only for a while: at a major junction on Honiton Road in Exmouth, lights were out for three weeks. People wrote in saying how pleasant and uncongested it was. Now lights are back on, it's a return to familiar delay and aggravation.

http://www.thisisexeter.co.uk/news/Drivers-disappointed-week-traffic-lights-holiday/article-332834-detail/article.html?cacheBust=Er6pVzIP9mrT#community