Well written, here is a link on the subject http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Injury_prevention
I also come to think of dependent origination. Something dependes on something else. There is no randomness, accidents or lucks. David David Jonsson, Sweden, phone callto:+46703000370 On Mon, Jan 4, 2010 at 5:29 PM, Jed Rothwell <jedrothw...@gmail.com> wrote: > In 2009, traffic accidents in Japan killed 4,914 people, a 5% decrease > over last year. This is the lowest annual toll since 1952. Here is a brief > news article: > > http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/traffic-accident-deaths-hit-57-year-low-below-5000-in-2009 > > Traffic deaths peaked in 1970 at 16,765. They have declined at a steady > pace since then. Experts give several reasons: seat belts, laws mandating > seat belt use, air bags, and in recent years, a crackdown on drunken > driving. To that I would add improved roads in many rural districts. > > The number of cars increased tremendously from 1952 to the 1980s, but it > has probably not increased much since then. I don't have any statistics on > that, but that is my guess based on population and economic trends. > > The NHK reported that the largest increase in accidents in recent years has > been caused by elderly drivers, because the Japanese population is aging, > and it has actually declined slightly in the last few years. > > The NHK showed an interesting graph of the decline that I am trying to > find. > > The point of this is that problems such as automobile accidents are not > really "accidental" and not unavoidable. They are predictable, in a > statistical sense. They can be avoided, or at least greatly reduced using > improved engineering, technology, laws, and law enforcement. Any technical > problem can be ameliorated with technical solutions. We should never > passively accept as inevitable some level of carnage on the roads, or air > pollution from electric power generation, or global warming, or any other > technical problem. We cannot eliminate traffic deaths but we can reduce them > year by year, until the number asymptotically approaches zero. Eventually, > decades or centuries from now, all deaths from traffic accidents will be > eliminated, if we choose to eliminate them. > > Technical problems can be fixed. Naturally occurring problems such as > cancer or beach erosion may not be amenable to any technical solution. > Social problems such as war or race prejudice cannot be fixed with > technology, although if we find social solutions, technology can be used as > a backup to enforce them. For example, a complete ban on nuclear testing, > including underground tests, can be monitored with the tools of seismology. > A traffic engineer or an automobile designer can stop people from killing > themselves in cars. They have the power to intervene directly in the course > of events. Seismologists cannot stop nations from conducting underground > tests, but if political leaders agree to stop testing, the seismologists can > then step in and verify that the agreement is being honored. > > - Jed >
