The Speed Camera: Government's Cash Machine
One: Overtaking on two-lane, two-way traffic streets anywhere in Spain. Also making a left turn across oncoming traffic.
Two: Speeding, i.e. exceeding the speed limit, or using excessive speed for road conditions at the time.
Three: Exhaustion. i.e. Driver Fatigue
Four: Driving while impaired by drink or drugs.
Five: Dangerous and reckless driving without regard for others.
Six: Tailgating and inattention.
Seven: Driving on the wrong side of the road and clockwise around a roundabout.
(TWO) : I DO BELIEVE I FEEL THE NEED FOR SPEED!
Motoring’s second mortal sin is almost on a par with number one, in that the words above are usually spoken by someone who is mixing gasoline with testosterone, one of the deadliest formulas known to mankind. Well, as males, we have all been there. We have all known what it is like to be raring to go, Faster! Faster! Faster! It is a time in our lives when we are invincible, unbreakable, immortal, imperishable. We feel that we can go out and conquer the world, or at least shape it in the image that we want it. This is indeed how Mother Nature gets things done. For change to happen requires this type of restlessness and energy in our young people. We older guys are too fat and lazy.
Speed on the racetrack is where it belongs. Let the young ones compete on the famous circuits of the world. Occasionally, I visit the circuit at Cheste in Valencia to watch motorcycle and even Formula-One events. We sit there and we see them race round the track in packs at top speed, weaving in and out. I think most people attend in the hope of witnessing some spectacular pile-ups or wipe-outs, because without those things happening it very quickly becomes as mundane as watching people on their way to work.
I’m always amused to see those races where the regular roads are turned into closed circuits, such as in Monte Carlo. Thousands line the roads to watch the professionals run through stop signs and red lights at top speeds. Of course, I never actually travel to Monte Carlo as I can see the same thing for free in downtown Valencia everyday.
Speed on the normal road system kills. On the racetrack, speeds reach ultra-high limits, but in spite of that and some amazing events where you see a car disintegrate before your eyes, there are very few deaths because of the controlled nature of it all. Our roads, however are in chaos. Spain will recorded in 2005, another sad fact that over 3,000 people lost their lives prematurely in motor “accidents”. The year 2005 was an especially tragic year around the world due to so many catastrophic natural events. Earthquakes, floods, the tsunami of Boxing Day, 2004. As I wrote this, humanitarian relief was on-going to the people of Pakistan where in excess of 30,000 died. Yet, the figure of 3,000 dead on our roads is more disturbing because not one of those deaths were absolutely necessary. Those who are caught in a natural event can do little or nothing to avoid their fate.
As drivers, we are absolutely responsible for how hard we press down the accelerator pedal. No-one else can make that control. Why do we speed?
- We didn’t hear the alarm clock and now we are late for work. We try to make up the time on the road.
- We speed because the car or bike is designed to top 200 km/h. So, we put the pedal to the metal on a busy road to try it out. What are we thinking?
- We are simply impatient people who have to be in front of everybody else.
- The reason that no-one seems to consider is, we speed because we just can’t wait to meet our own death.
In all but one of the above examples there is one thing in common, and it is this: we probably won’t achieve what we want to because, when we are speeding we increase the likelihood that we will have a crash, or in a best case, we will simply be stopped by the police. Consequently, we will be late for work; we will likely lose our license so the car will sit in the garage and the speedometer will read zero; we will have to take public transport and everybody else will get ahead of us; but the good news is that we will stay alive, and for those who love us, that will be very good news indeed.
I’m not such an old guy that I forget how it was when I was young. Yes, I felt the need for speed. At times I had so much energy I felt I was about to leap out of my skin. But I survived that period and I have lived to tell the tale. Every time I hear of some young person killed on the roads I try to think of what the parents must be experiencing. It goes against the laws of nature that a parent should have to bury a child. When that happens the parents die too. To lose one’s only child leaves very little to live for. That is a life sentence full of pain and overwhelming loss. I know people who are in such situations and for them they are the living dead. There can be no worse fate than that!
Death on the roads? It doesn’t have to end like that!
Don’t overtake on two-way roads. Save your life for those who love you!
Copyright (c) 2008 Eugene Carmichael
