WRECKLESS DRIVING
by John Lee
Schools are out to teach patriotism; newspapers are out to stir up excitement; and politicians are out to get reelected. None of the three, therefore, can do anything whatsoever towards saving the human race from reciprocal suicide. --censored author Bertrand Russell
DRIVER CERTIFICATION: IN GOVERNMENT WE TRUST?
Motor vehicles are dangerous. Sometimes it appears that some drivers don't quite seem to grasp this concept. Some drivers take bone-headed risks, like a local government school bus driver who attempted to make a U-turn on the Interstate, using a police speed-trap as a shortcut -- several deaths resulted when a tractor-trailer jacknifed while trying to take avoiding action. The bus driver was convicted of murder (but the manufacturing executives who profited from plastic buses were not). ALL motor vehicle travelers are ALWAYS a heartbeat away from death and destruction. Acknowledgemnt of this unpleasant fact assists a responsible driver in focusing his or her attention upon the task at hand. Until motor vehicles are made out of the same material as those little black boxes used in airliners (to record cockpit screams and epiteths that inevitably occur when pilots witness personal armageddon), drivers cannot rely upon their vehicles to protect them.
The typical government-issue Driver Handbook is approximately 100 pages of basic information. Perhaps ten pages are devoted to promotion of Prohibition as a cure for crashing (using less-than-accurate data). A citizen is lucky if he gets one full page devoted to driving skills that might actually extricate him from an impending crash. This section is designed to give motorists adequate information of the skills they need to prevent "accidents" in the real world.
Traffic accidents often precipitate a DWI arrest for the victim. Improving one's driving skills is thus an effective deterrant to government prosecution and incarceration. During a Prohibition, citizens are often prosecuted for DWI when blood-alcohol levels are low or non-existant (so-called "alcohol-related" crashes). This allows anyone else who is injured to sue the crash victim for greater financial damages, and allows insurance companies to profit from premiums without having to pay for claims (or for reduced claims -- "contributory liability"). If the victim is dead, often his estate will be sued, posthumously. Bankruptcy often results from court verdicts after a traffic crash, which are a major cause of bankruptcy. However, bankruptcy laws do not protect a victim from DWI-related civil verdicts (his other creditors will be shortchanged instead).
Since the government's strict DWI laws are allegedly intended to make driving safer, let us take a look at other ways to save lives. The American taxpayers spend hundreds of billions of dollars annually on traffic tickets, DWI arrests, vehicle seizures, police salaries and overhead, prison incarceration, increased insurance premiums, loan defaults, bankruptcies and family breakups. Isn't there a better way, a more intelligent way? Is there a way to save many more lives, without crushing the freedom of American citizens? Are Prohibition Wars against the citizens really the solution?
Lifesaving skid school costs less than one traffic ticket, and is infinitely better value for one's tax dollar. | According to a government study, it is possible to reduce traffic crashes and fatalities by 88% simply by giving citizens basic instruction, paid for by driver license fees. And this was in a category where 20% of the citizens did not get the mandatory training. Imagine how close to a 100% elimination of crashes America can acheive by applying this method to all driver license holders. No need for expensive traffic citations, arrests, seizures or murders by violent police. No need to kill innocent bystanders. Isn't that an intelligent solution? Of course the California government ceased this program when it learned of its effectiveness -- at reducing government revenues from crash victims and revenue from "free" education.
It is a simple fact that the world's population is doubling every few years. Thomas Malthus, chief economist for England's old colonial empire, wrote that "Population, when left unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio. Subsistence increases only in an arithmetical ratio. A slight aquaintence with numbers will show the immensity of the first power in comparison with the second." The English scientist Charles Darwin observed how nature rewards "natural selection" and "survival of the fittest." Some people in government seem to believe that it is their job to assist in reducing the world's population (without allowing contraception), thus ensuring that the strongest survive. Weed out the weak and ignorant. Improve the genetics of human race. This is the dark side of evolutionary theory. Even the promotor of Formula One Grand Prix racing, Bernie Ecclestone, is on record as desiring motor sport fatalities, due to their "natural culling effect" upon allegedly over-the-hill, over-paid athletes. That's pretty arrogant of someone who allegedly puts $10 million dollars in his pocket after every race (mainly TeeVee advertising revenues), thanks to the spectacular appeal of the drivers. (In 1998, Mr. Ecclestone was attempting a $1.5 billion deal to sell stock in "his" racing organization. He allegedly avoided going to prison over a London business, sending his partner to prison instead -- rewarding him for not ratting him out by giving him a race team franchise). Maybe God gives us a basic understanding of how the universe works, and it is up to us to figure out how to survive from there. (This is also similar to the arguement that apologists for the 450,000 tobacco deaths every year -- it saves money for insurance companies and the government to not have to pay retirement benefits.)
When the government licenses the tobacco companies to legally market their scientifically modified products, 4,000,000 "mentally defective" and "genetically inferior" Americans are eliminated every ten years -- with government approval and taxpayer welfare subsidies for corporations and farmers. When the government takes bribes and licenses the medical community free rein against the public, another 4,000,000 "mentally defective" and "genetically inferior" Americans are eliminated every ten years (an overly conservative estimate). When the government licenses and subsidizes the food-service industry to maximize their profits, malnutrition kills 500,000 Americans every decade (modern foods may kill sixty-million Americans, judging by America's excessively high statistics for heart attacks). When the government licenses organized religion to deny contraception to Americans and the rest of the world -- the U.S. Surgeon General was fired (censored) for writing the word "condom" in his annual health report -- the world's population explodes. When the American government allows its militarized corporations and military-subcontracted armies to slaughter tens of thousands of people every year, at least a modest attempt is being made at population control -- yet 100 million more people inhabit the planet every year.
Vehicle crashes are another way to eliminate 500,000 "mentally defective" and "genetically inferior" Americans every decade. "Natural selection" remains the law of the modern-day jungle. That's ten times the American fatalities as occurred during the government's entire thirty-year Vietnam (Laos-Cambodia-Thailand) War (excuse me, "police action"). All of these crashes are avoidable. Virtually all of them involved a vehicle that its driver was unable to control just pror to the point of impact. However, a driver is capable of learning how to control his vehicle even in emergency situations. He only needs someone to tell him how to do it. The government, however, is not willing to do this, for whatever its reasons.
The government teaches many high school students the basics of how to drive. The government conducts basic testing to determine whether someone is competent to obtain certification to drive. The government controls the basic driving skills of every driver on the road today.
What if the government doesn't teach drivers critically important, potentially lifesaving information?
What if the majority of modern vehicles have an inherent instablity in emergency situations? What if millions of modern vehicles have safety quirks, that once an emergency situation arises, it suddenly becomes impossible to steer or control the car?
What if the government does not teach drivers how to handle an emergency situation, especially in a modern car? What if the information the government does give them is grossly incorrect, like that given to motocyclists? How are drivers to learn, by experience? What if they don't survive the experience, to learn from it?
What if there were a method of driving that could compensate for this inherent instability designed into millions of today's cars? Wouldn't that be important information for people to know? Why doesn't the government teach that method of driving, or require people to know it in order to qualify for a driver's license? Why don't manufacturers include this information in their vehicles' owners' manuals? Are the manufacturers' corporate attorneys afraid that lifesaving warnings would be viewed as a confession of guilt leading to millions of product liability lawsuits?
What if the government could raise millions of dollars by charging citizens for the crime of having an accident in one of these cars (a "crash tax")? Do you think the government would be quick to reduce its revenues, by telling people how to avoid these collisions?
What if this design limitation made cars cheaper and more profitable to manufacture? What if manufacturers considered it worth the risk of a few isolated lawsuits, so long as profits remained high -- like Ford and General Motors felt ONE-DOLLAR was too much to spen to save thousands of customers from incineration? If people knew about this particular design limitation, could victims of car collisions possibly cripple the motor vehicle industry with product liability lawsuits? Manufacturers contribute large amounts of money to politicians responsible for transportation safety. Could that be why we haven't heard about these design flaws from the government?
Wouldn't you like to know what this danger is, and how you can easily eliminate it, for yourself and your family? For free? Avoiding death in a minefield requires a map. Avoiding death on the highway requires a roadmap to survival.
| 
