Is It Murder?
December 30, 2008 6:34 PM
With drunken driving fatalities staying constant despite campaigns against the crime, some prosecutors are pursuing harsher penalties, including long prison terms for those who caused deaths.
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There has been a national outrage over %u201Conly%u201D 14 deaths at Columbine and %u201Conly%u201D 33 deaths at Virginia Tech. Substantial national concern is being expressed over %u201Conly%u201D 4,200 deaths in Iraq, and 58,000 in Vietnam. Those are totals! For vehicle crash deaths, we%u2019re talking 39,000 to 55,000 annually!
The fact that our society seems to accept a death toll of that magnitude per year, year after year, as a reasonable %u201Cside-effect%u201D of our automobile-driven transportation system in the USA is an indicator of just how sick we are. What really needs to grow from this realization is a movement for social reform that seeks to overturn the prevailing devaluation of human life.
Vehicle traffic crashes are the leading USA cause of death for every age 3 through 34. The WHO estimates that 1.2 million people die in road crashes every year and 50 million more are hurt, at a cost of more than $500 billion in lost income and disability. It%u2019s the number 9 killer world-wide, but rapidly moving into 3rd (yes!, 3rd) place.
Traffic %u201Caccidents%u201D are no accident; they are predictable outcomes, yet we must believe that they are preventable outcomes, and act accordingly.