Friday, July 25, 2003
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A Day For Staying Home

Ithaca Bound

There were no performances on my agenda, and I was not scheduled to work at Heritage-New Hampshire. July 4th, then, was spent pretty much as I had described it in an earlier column. There was the added advantage of not having to contend with the ever-mounting irresponsible driving that becomes even more so on national holidays. I gladly stayed home.
According to the National Center for Statistics and Analysis of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2001, there were 6,323,000 police reported accidents, resulting in 3,033,000 injuries, and 42, 116 deaths. The just released figures for 2002 report the number of deaths last year at 42,815, the highest total in 12 years. On the plus side, the number of reported crashes decreased somewhat. Such appalling figures have been commonplace for years. Evidently, though, this largely avoidable carnage on our roadways does not matter to the majority of us. One does not have to be driving on the Intestates to confirm this. The number of drivers exceeding the posted speed limit on the Berlin-Gorham Road testifies to our indifference, impatience, and, ultimately, our irresponsibility when operating a motor vehicle.
We rationalize these away, of course: “The speed limit is not realistic.” “They give you a few miles over the limit, anyway.” “Everybody does it.” How easy it is to make excuses! But the crashes keep occurring, and passing crash scene sites or seeing crash scene photographs have only momentary effect, at best. It always happens to somebody else. We are “good” drivers.
Horrific life-taking, limb-shattering crashes are called “accidents,” but how can it be an “accident” when we are deliberately exceeding posted speed limits, when we are deliberately tailgating the car in front of us, when we are deliberately drinking and driving, or when we are deliberately violating every safe driving rule we have ever been taught or have ever read about. Talking on our cell phones, taking our eyes off the road to talk with our passengers, or eating our breakfast, lunch, snack, or dinner as we drive adds to the ever immanent danger. A high percentage of us disdain the use of seat belts. At the high speeds our vehicles are now moving, a second’s distraction can mean a lifetime of pain and suffering, or instant death. For the majority of us, evidently, it does not matter.
The automotive industry’s vivid pictorial and sound ads for their cars and trucks and the increasingly popular SUV’s, despite the mounting evidence of the latter being the most dangerous vehicle on the road, do not encourage safe driving techniques. Disclaimers that their ads depict professional drivers on closed courses cannot override the glamorous exalting of speed and power. Just listen to the exuberance of the voice-overs, if you need convincing of this. When we are at the wheel, we are the masters of the universe, so they imply. Vehicle racing of all kinds has become a major sports industry. One hundred thousand people at the Loudon Speedway this past weekend. Does the glorification of speed and the daring-do of the sports “heroes” have any effects on our own daily driving habits? A rousing chorus of “No!” would be the reply, undoubtedly. But a few minutes spent on our highways and byways makes one wonder.
This seemingly insatiable need for speed is not confined to our roadways, of course. We demand faster and faster working computers, with faster and faster access to the Internet. We want faster and faster working search engines once we on that Internet. We communicate by E-mail more and more. The art of the letter is fast becoming passé. We are a fast food nation, gobble and go. We want our music fast and loud. Patience is an all but forgotten word in our vocabulary, and certainly in the way we live our lives. We even expect our wars to be fast, and, of course, as bloodless as possible. As Maureen Dowd wrote in one of her “New York Times” columns: “We want big. We want fast. We want far. We want now. . . . We are Americans.” Writing this will make little or no difference, of course. Such destructive habits are now far too ingrained for that. And there will be those who point out that the number of deaths and injuries in relation to the number of vehicles on the road and the trillions of miles traveled each year is relatively small. True enough. Surely, though, we should not find that comforting. Surely, there is even a callousness to it that should be very disturbing to any responsible minded person Surely, human life is more valuable than that. The observable and statistical evidence shows that it is not.
(Ithaca Bound is the pen name of Dick Conway. His e-mail address is lamancha@ncia.net.)

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