Road Safety !

Nineteen people died a horrible death on New South Wales roads in the first eleven days of this holiday season, and with five more days to go it seems certain that we will exceed the same period last year.  These deaths have pushed the state's road toll this year to 380, about the same as the 2016 figure, but 30 more deaths than in 2015.

There is no common factor.  The range of people were from all walks of life - and both genders.  Some were the drivers of vehicles and others were passengers, and some were pedestrians who managed to get hit crossing busy roads.  Sadly, many children are among the deceased.  The joy of Christmas is muted for many families.

Unfortunately, death in a road accident is becoming a statistic that far out ranks the other causes of death for most healthy citizens who otherwise have the expectation of living to a ripe old age.  The reason we crash our cars is no mystery.   Every fatality is carefully investigated by the police scientific squad and those findings make sad reading.   Speeding - driving tired - and inattention head the list and at least one of these has a factor of not bothering to use a seat belt or using a mobile phone as contributing to the accident.

What more can we do to make our roads safer ?  There seems no credible answer to that question.  Every holiday weekend we double demerit points and saturate the roads with police.  Speeding fines are handed out and we detect many driving with an illegal blood/alcohol count or who are affected by drugs.   Without that effort, the deaths would probably be higher.

We are placing our hopes on the future of self driving cars but it is inevitable that when they become legal for a long time they will share the roads with todays conventional car fleet.   The government will be tempted to tax conventional cars out of existence but sheer economics will make the change to self driving a protracted affair.  The family who have invested in a conventional car will expect to get an economic use of that vehicle before changing to the new system.

Perhaps the only saving grace to our road toll is the number of people who now crash - and survive. The modern car is safer - and cheaper.  Even the basic models now come with safety features like multiple air bags and crumple zones to allow the car to absorb the energy of a crash,.  The Australian car fleet has never been less composed of older cars and as a result the option of buying second hand is diminishing in favour of new vehicles.

Improvement to the road system certainly increases safety. Multiple lane divided roads reduce the number and severity of crashes, but they are horrendously expensive and many country districts are serviced by roads with a single lane each way - contributing to the biggest cause of fatalities - head on crashes.

It seems that the age of the motor car brings with it the personal mobility we now take for granted. Our society could not have developed in the way it has - without that form of transport., but the power of the modern car and the sheer numbers competing for space on our roads means that conflict is inevitable.

We can not hope to eliminate the road toll until a form of artificial intelligence replaces humans in guiding cars to their destination.  Fortunately, that is now becoming a reality !