Nine people a day in Great Britain die from road accidents. Thats a startling statistic, but one thats being used by all sorts of people to persecute car drivers. The man behind the wheel is the villain. He (or she) knocks down pedestrians, fills our roads with stationary queues, and threatens the climate.

The emotive interviews with grieving parents of those killed on the road are understandable but to some extent it's exploitive journalism. Life after all isn't safe, despite the cossetting nature of modern society. You cannot legislate accidents out of existence because so many incidents are the result of poor decision making and observation. We have accidents, therefore, because we're human beings and that means we're not perfect. That doesn't excuse willful decisions to drive in a manner liable to cause accidnts, but then, the legislation to deal with that already exists.

Here's something that might put it all in perspective. Nine people a day might die on British roads, but more than that die from falling over. Think I'd better stop telling jokes, I could be made responsible for a mass atrocity.

Hypocrisy of the Week

Not so long ago, Swindon Council got praise from some quarters for abandoning the speed camera. Sorry, I should have called it a safety camera shouldn't I? Well, I 've written before about the ridiculous notion that cameras stop accidents. They don't. In fact, the whole point of Swindon Council removing their support for the camera schemes was because these cameras were a means to use drivers as cash cows.

So what do they do? They double parking charges in car parks and street schemes. Having discovered their revenue from speeding fines has dwindled, they seek to restore their profits by targeting law-abiding motorists instead.