Some people have asked me why they didn't hear about the police
action against the Critical Mass last Friday. I tell them it fits a
pattern of corporate media bias towards their major advertisers, the
auto industry.Today's news is a good example. Our local media is reporting that there were 237 car "accidents" in the Twin Cities Metro Area yesterday (I apologize to the list that there was no Minneapolis statistics available) at least two people were reported killed , at least 45 people were reported injured. The weather is blamed by the corporate owned local media for these crashes.The State Department of Public Safety no longer uses the word "accident" to describe crashes, but the corporate media which derives a large portion of their income from automobile ads continues to minimize the carnage and waste created by our auto dependent transportation system. Does anyone doubt who would be blamed if bicyclists, trains or buses had as many crashes and injured and killed as many people? Some more examples: A few weeks ago my youngest daughter saw a kid hit by a car in South Minneapolis being loaded unconscious into an ambulance...I saw no mention of the incident on T.V. or in the paper. Car crashes are the leading cause of death, in America for children and young adults, but if you only read the newspaper and watched the TV, you'd think it was serial killers or drugs. If you read the corporate media you get the impression that the only cost of an automobile-based transportation system to society is the gas tax...but there are other costs...and not always in dollars....this is the real story from the Dept. of Public Safety: "Minnesota Motor Vehicle Crash Facts, 2000 page 4 Department of Public Safety, Office of Traffic Safety "Overview of 2000 traffic crashes For almost two decades, the total number of reported traffic crashes in Minnesota has been approximately 100,000 per year. In the absence of some dramatic societal change, this total will not change abruptly. In 2000, there were 103,591 traffic crashes reported to the state. There is a cost associated with such a large number. Of the reported crashes in 2000, 557 were fatal crashes in which 625 people died. Also, there were 30,830 injury crashes where no one died but one or more people sustained injuries. In all, 44,740 people were injured. Finally, there were 72,204 �property damage only crashes� (PDO) in which there was at least $1,000 in property damage but no one was killed or injured. There was a 9% increase in these PDO crashes from the previous year. The severe winter weather late in the year helps to explain this increase. In all, based upon National Safety Council cost estimates, the total economic loss to Minnesota from traffic crashes was 1.68 billion dollars." The corporate media also would like you to think that "Drunk Drivers" are the major cause of car crashes. This is also not true. "WHY the crashes occurred Inattention/distraction, failing to yield, and speed The three contributing factors that investigating officers check off most frequently, considering all crashes together, are driver inattention or distraction (about 23% of all factors cited), failing to yield right-of- way (about 14%), and illegal or unsafe speed (about 12%). The likelihood that a particular factor was involved varies however with the age of the driver, the severity of the crash, and whether the crash was a single-vehicle or multiple-vehicle crash. In single-vehicle crashes, speed is cited more often than any other factor, except among drivers over age 65, for whom inattention/distraction is cited most" I could give lots more evidence of auto-favoritism by the corporate media, but I don't want to clog up your inboxes. I encourage everyone to read the crash statistics on the MN Dept. of Public Safety website; http://www.dps.state.mn.us/trafsafe/trafsafe.html Recently, a lobbyist told me that the automobile was "the engine of our economy", responsible for the billions of dollars spent on roads, bridges and parking ramps etc. Certainly, automobiles are useful (and profitable), but when we minimize the dangerous nature of cars and refuse to limit their use in populated areas and provide safer alternatives, we are no different than ancient civilizations that sacrificed humans to appease gods who were the engines of their economies. Ken Avidor Kingfield _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
