We currently have a system where we rely on hundreds of millions of individual drivers. If any one of them has a genuine medical episode, let alone some lapse of attention or judgment explained away as a "medical episode" by the cops, it is very easy for it to kill or seriously injure that person and others.
We used to have a system where most people walked or were passengers and the really dangerous vehicles were guided by rails, but apparently this is progress.
It's even worse because even when we have predictive factors we usually don't restrict high risk people from continuing to drive.
We invest so much into safety in other domains (aviation is the one I'm most experienced with), but somehow drivers get a pass to be much more risky to the people around them. I don't understand why.
@swope From what I've seen, we generally don't restrict high risk people from continuing to drive because we've set up our economy so that most of them can't survive without driving.
We'd rather let these high risk people drive three-ton death machines around than reorganize our society so they can walk or take the train.
I can see that reasoning. It's not just the economy, but the whole structure of our zoning and transportation. Taking someone's license is tantamount to house arrest in a lot of suburbs and cities.
Add comment