ROAD SAFETY

[sc]

Just wondering whether we are going about road safety the right way. A thought from a discussion the other day.

We engineer our roads to minimise the risk to drivers and we engineer our vehicles to reduce the likelyhood of injury or death in an accident.

Our planes are engineered for high levels of redundancy, our pilots are very well trained as are the ground staff that keep them in the air.

Our roads still manage to have a large number of un-necessary deaths (drivers, cyclists and pedestrians) whilst our airways have very few deaths from pilot or mechanical failure.

Why????????????

My thought is that it is the training given to the people that makes all of the difference. Should we be spending less on advertising and more on training for our ground transport?

Comments and thoughts anyone??

sc

 

[TheBlacksmith]

How many pilots eat (with autopilot turned off), dial and talk on cellphones, shave, read books, apply makeup, brush their teeth, look for something under or behind the seat, turn and swat the kids, drink "just a couple" before flying, my favorite - don't read the "operators manual" or bother to familiarize themselves with the plane, skip maintenance on tires, brakes, lights, wipers, etc., or skip a personal physical for years. Sorry, I'm ranting, but, and I'm not a pilot, to compare a group of trained, licensed, inspected professionals to the average Joe who assumes driving is a right and not a privilege and that the everything on the car lasts without attention for years makes it very obvious to me that we've been wasting our money on safer roads and cars. Remember, when you make something idiot proof, the idiots just get smarter!

Blacksmith

 

[n3rei]

Hi!,
Just to add my two cents.
Hopefully in the future the driver will be taken out of the equation with auto piloted vehicles. I think I do know what you are talking about though. If people would not smoke, drink, etc... the world would be a better place also-maybe. Except for the inocent, it is one way of weeding out the gene pool.

 

[trafficPro]

I dont think the comparison is quite even handed. Air traffic is regulated so that there is a spatial separation between vehicles. (not a pilot, so I dont know the magnitude of the separatiion). When traffic is too heavy for safety, the number of flights is restricted. Not so with cars.
many of the auto drivers have repeat accident records and or repeat traffic regulation breakers. They still ahve the right to drive. A pilot would have been grounded way before that point.
On an airplane, there is mandatory scheduled maintenance. Not so on cars. The annual/biannual inspections can be subverted by using your own friendly local auto mechanic.

There may be other reasons, but I believe these will do for starters, better drivers/pilots, better maintenance and regulated lesser traffic density.
TrafficPro