Ramblings

Bloviating: to you, from me. Chide me if you will. algot@runeman.org

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Fri, 05 Jun 2009

Bubble Wrapped Kids

I just ran across a blog post that mercifully agrees with me...what good are blog posts if they don't agree with me???

Tech Liberation has a post which refers to a book called Free Range Kids by Lenore Skenazy who has a blog of her own with the same name.

I plan to get a copy from my local library so I can read it. Then I may purchase several copies so I can toss them out the window as I drive by clusters of parents and children standing at small town bus stops. The parents (not one but several...typically one per child) wait for the bus and gaze after it, some waving, others just watching. Are they checking to be sure their child doesn't jump out a window or get off at the next cluster?

Outrage!

Talk show host, Michael Graham is again talking about his outrage at the driving accidents that have recently occured in a cluster which involve drivers in their 70s or older. He is jabbering on about getting a special test going for drivers who are older than some age...arbitrary in his mind.

I realize Graham and the others who make their living by talking, must be controversial to gain listeners. But is that enough? He just called Deval Patrick "our pathetic Governor" because he and the Massachusetts Legislature have not jumped all over this issue.

On the other hand, he is not raging about the number of accidents caused by middle aged drivers. You know the ones I mean. They drive too fast. They change lanes several times in a minute. They cut across from the left lane to take a right turn at the last possible moment (at 40+ MPH). Some of them do this while talking on a cell phone. Others drive while applying eye liner.

This doesn't count the drivers who are under the influence of alcohol or drugs. According to the CDC Impaired Driving Factsheet:

Every day, 36 people in the United States die, and approximately 700 more are injured, in motor vehicle crashes that involve an alcohol-impaired driver. The annual cost of alcohol-related crashes totals more than $51 billion. But there are effective measures that can help prevent injuries and deaths from alcohol-impaired driving.

How big is the problem?

• In 2006, 13,470 people died in alcohol-impaired driving crashes, accounting for nearly one-third (32%) of all traffic-related deaths in the United States.
• In 2007, over 1.4 million drivers were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics.4 That's less than one percent of the 159 million self-reported episodes of alcohol-impaired driving among U.S. adults each year.
• Drugs other than alcohol (e.g., marijuana and cocaine) are involved in about 18% of motor vehicle driver deaths. These other drugs are generally used in combination with alcohol.
• Half of the 306 child passengers ages 14 and younger who died in alcohol-related crashes in 2006 were riding with drivers who had a BAC level of .08 or higher.
• In 2006, 45 children age 14 years and younger who were killed as pedestrians or bicyclists were hit by alcohol-impaired drivers.

Source: http://www.cdc.gov/MotorVehicleSafety/Impaired_Driving/impaired-drv_factsheet.html accessed June 5, 2009.

I would be willing to bet that the number of accidents for drivers over, pick 75 as the age, is tiny compared to the massive number of drunk driving accidents and accidents caused by agressive (or simply stupid) driving.