Making Everything Too Safe For Our Own Good

     I was in a local show the other day, wandering with my daughter, looking at the stalls. I am somehow drawn irresistibly to and a sucker for clever little gadgets and tools sold from little stalls that are sometimes marketed on infomercials on the TV.

     I saw a little ‘safe knife’ on sale for kids to cut food. It is a clever little design and the price is for the cleverness, not the materials.  Even if the knife slips while cutting, it will not cut the fingers or hands. It is not sharp edged, but cuts by a sawing action.

     One could give it to kids to use and not worry about supervising them while they cut most of their food. The lady selling them said, you can let the kids practice cutting with a knife without worry. The cost is recovered from the first medical bill. That sold me and I bought a couple of them.

     Then it occurred to me that one still needs to, at some point, supervise and teach kids to cut safely with a sharp knife. It also reminded me of something I have observed as a pattern over a long period of time, specially living in the US and Australia – We humans have been on a trend of making things safer for ourselves and for our children for a long time. We consider anything ‘safer’ to be a sign of progress in our civilization. I am not too sure about that.

     I wondered what would happen when the kids who first learn to cut food with the safe knife handle a traditional sharp edged knife for the first time. They will have grown so used to being worry free and careless that they could do real damage to themselves or others! So, does the ‘progress’ in safety really makes the world safer in the long term?  I don’t think so. So, I bring up an example of one of my pet peeves – general driving around Australia, particularly the countryside where the average speeds achieved are high.

     It is only relatively recently, when humankind came up with a clever design to go faster on land than our bodies ever did in all of human history – from the maximum speeds of about 20 km/hr on a sprint on our own power, a bit faster on horseback or at the grand speeds of about 5-10km/hr on a cart or carriage. Of course, in the olden days, not everyone sprinted around for daily commute nor everyone rode a horse at full gallop. Most probably averaged 10km/hr as a peak speed in their daily lives.

     The automobile came as a breakthrough and suddenly the average speed shot up for everyone using it – in fact for most of us! Safety became an issue for a human body not evolved yet for such speeds. Our maximum speeds had to be kept below what the machines were actually capable of. We came up with shatterproof windshields, wider roads, driving lanes, wider wheel base, seat belts, anti-lock brakes, airbags, side airbags, roll bars, advanced bumpers, crumple zones. With each advancement or new design, we realized we could go faster and be safer. Our average speeds, the speed limits and the speed we are expected to maintain have gone up steadily. Our attitudes and conditioning have changed. Now, with every new safety achievement, we do not accept it and reap the benefits of extra safety, we simply push our speed limits higher to maintain a certain ‘acceptable’ rate of fatalities and injuries per capita. That becomes a norm until more people use it, pushing the numbers higher or a new improvement comes along. Such is human nature.

     So, taking into account human nature, here are my suggestions to make things really, really safe for everyone in the long run. They will likely result in the safest culture and attitude to driving.

Note: I and my family have been touched by the road toll and I do not mean to be insensitive to the feelings of others. I say what I say below to make a point. Any city planners or lawmakers among my readers are hereby specifically cautioned, these are not to be taken literally or as gospel. Do not ‘credit’ me with any laws you make incorporating my suggestions!

Make it mandatory that:

All cars on the road will have to incorporate the following or be declared not roadworthy:

_Highly shatter-able windshields

_ Compulsory NO seatbelts! Anyone caught wearing one will be severely fined

_In place of an air-bag, there be a sharp metal spike in the middle of the steering wheel

_The wheel base of all cars should be compulsorily be made narrow so that if you make a turn at 40km/hr, it will roll over

_ Ban anti-lock brakes, fog lights, bull bars

Road rules:

_Increase the speed limits or remove them altogether. You are allowed to drive at any speed you feel ‘safe’.

_Narrow driving lanes

     Launch an intensive education and awareness campaign to change to the new rules on a certain day morning. The new system should encourage a safe and considerate attitude to driving. I can see people coming to an intersection or roundabout and having a chivalrous ‘you go first please’ attitude to anyone. Not much overtaking. Road rage will be a thing of the past.

     Of course, by the end the first day using the new system, by Darwin’s theory, humans would be a smarter, fitter and more importantly, a nicer race on the average. I note in the passing that advanced countries like India (it may be not apparent to many) are already far ahead in this concept of road safety in practical use. They have engineered the roads themselves with pot holes, removed or not put in road signs and let in cattle and people to wander freely in the middle of the roads to add new dimensions to road safety. It all results in traffic barely averaging 5-10km/hr on the roads of the largest cities in India, making them the safest with the least likelihood of fatalities in an accident.

NOTE:I come from a deep conviction and strong feeling that the people and the animals have been around longer than the cars and rightfully they should have the right of way. It is in countries like India that it is an accepted way of life. It is nothing to feel ashamed of, apologize for – in fact something to be proud of.


Copyright  (c) Kannan Narayanamurthy 2012

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