At 11:20 PM 5/10/01 -0400, John D. Giorgis wrote:
>A thought on the ending to Wednesday's episode of "The West Wing."
>SPOILER WARNING, don't read if you want to watch it some day - that means
>*you*, Julia! ;-)
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>At the ending of the episode, a running gag is made out of the announcement
>that there will be a major meeting come 9pm. The Senior Staff is then
>dismissed to get dinner before the meeting. That means that this event
>occurs no later than 8pm.
>
>Immediately afterwards, the best boy receives a phone call that Mrs.
>Laningham was killed by a drunk driver. Assuming that it takes at least
>an hour for word of a fatal car accident to reach one's place of
>employment, even at the White House, this places the time of the accident
>no later than 7pm, and probably closer to 6pm.
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>So my question is, who gets killed by a drunk driver in the middle of rush
>hour? I honestly don't have any stats on this, but my impression seems
>to be that drunk driving is much more prevalent at much later hours.
>
I remember reading statistics breaking down accidents by time of day and
day of the week some years ago. Serious accidents were more probable after
midnight and on weekends, when many people were returning home from the
bars. That of course was long before the days of the Internet (even before
the imposition of the 55-hour national speed limit, IIRC), so either one
would have to dig in hard copy for them or hope there's a more recent set
available.
Another point about the timing: If the episode is supposed to be taking
place in realtime, i.e., at this time of the year, when we are already on
Daylight Savings Time, it does not get dark until 8pm or so, but wasn't it
dark outside during the final sequence?
-- Ronn! :)
