Why I despise Advocacy Groups

pettyfog · Dec 27, 2006

A Deadly Story We Keep Missing

By Peter J. Woolley
Wednesday, December 27, 2006; Page A19

The non-story of 2006 was also the non-story of 2005. It is a non-story every year going back decades. Yet the number of people who die in car crashes in the United States is staggering, even if it is absent from the agenda of most public officials and largely ignored by the public.

When all is said and done and the ball begins to drop on New Year's Eve, 44,000 people, give or take several hundred, will have died in auto accidents this year. To put that number in perspective, consider that:

If you made a yearbook containing the photos of those killed this year, putting 12 photos on each page, it would have 3,500 pages. If you wanted to limit your traffic-death yearbook to a manageable 400 pages, you'd either have to squeeze more than 100 photos onto each page or issue an eight-volume set.

Can you hear me now? Automobile deaths are the leading cause of death for children, for teenagers and in fact for all people from age 3 to 33. Yet this annual tragedy is not a cause celebre.

Opinion leaders largely ignore the ubiquitous massacre. No marches, walkathons, commemorative stamps or fundraising drives are organized. It is not brought up in the State of the Union address. It is rarely the subject of public affairs shows. Statistics aren't updated daily in major newspapers or broadcasts.

Gruesome crashes are reported just one at a time, each as if it might never happen again. Little attention is paid to the aftermath: safety measures taken or not taken, the workings or non-workings of the justice system. These avoidable deaths, as well as more than 2 million nonfatal dismemberments, disfigurements and other injuries that go along with them, have become part of the fabric of everyday life in the United States.

...
Elected officeholders naturally take the path of least resistance. They are well aware that significantly reducing deaths on the roads requires radical solutions in the form of regulation, investment and enforcement. Roads need to be made safer, for example, by extending guardrails and medians to every mile of busy highways. Speeding and aggressive driving need to be much more rigorously controlled. Trucks need to be separated from automobiles wherever possible. And cars need to be built slower and stronger.

But every solution is readily opposed by someone: manufacturers, industrial unions, truckers, consumers, taxpayers -- though all are potential victims themselves. The public is not to blame. It is hemmed in on every side by mind-numbing advertising and shouted stories of the moment. Apparently no medium is willing to bludgeon people -- as they need to be -- with statistics and trends on the dangers facing them every time they set out in their automobiles.

Only if there is a public outcry will this situation get the attention due it. Only when people fully realize the absurd and avoidable costs of the dangers that stalk them on the road -- and then demand governmental action in the form of forceful intervention and strict regulation -- will this become the story of the year, as it should be.

The writer is a professor of political science at Fairleigh Dickinson University and executive director of PublicMind, a public opinion research group there.
Click to expand...

So THERE you have it.... do you note he didnt mention there were 52,000 road deaths in 1970? Do you know how many more cars there are on the roads now? And how many more miles each of those car travel?
And of course he doesnt mention the great decrease in death/100,000,000 to ONE POINT SEVEN

DEATHS PER 100 MILLION VEHICLE-MILES
(1) Sweden 1.2
(2) United Kingdom 1.4
(3) Finland 1.5
(4) United States 1.7
(5) Netherlands 1.8
(6) Denmark 2.0

(9) Germany 2.5

No... instead he deals with emotions rather than facts, The only statistics he uses are EMOTIONAL ones.. and WHY NOT, he's a professor of POLITICAL SCIENCE, or how to bend peoples minds to what you think is right.

Year |Registered Vehicles (000) |Vehicle Mileage (Billions)

|Fatalities |Fatality Rate

1960 74,444 719 36,399 5.06
1965 91,743 888 47,089 5.30
1970 111,243 1,110 54,180 4.92
1975 137,915 1,327 44,525 3.36
1980 161,761 1,527 51,091 3.35
1985 177,097 1,774 43,825 2.47
1990 193,057 2,148 44,599 2.08
1991 192,549 2,172 41,508 1.91
1992 194,427 2,240 39,250 1.75
1993e 196,866 2,288 40,115 1.75

In other words, the SYSTEM WORKS! Things ARE happening.. but they are happening as technology and the market drives them.
Note there are three era's of dramatic decrease.. I can tell you the exact reasons.
But that's not good enough for him. He wants GOVERNMENT MANDATE.

I know how he votes... I know what is important to him..

He gets my red-hot proctopoker award of the day.

And I feel very sorry for those who can be swayed by that type of tripe.

ed: I had originally titled this "Why I despise Liberal Advocacy.." but I know there's the same going on, on the right. I just cant think of one that correlates.

pettyfog · Dec 28, 2006

One responder to this poser's crap reminded us of a far more sinister threat to everyone.... and one which the government is doing even LESS about,

Dihydrogen Monoxide!

Forum	Title	Date
Miscellaneous	Why I despise Liberal do-gooders!!!!	Oct 3, 2007
Miscellaneous	Why Conservatives despise the media	Sep 12, 2006

Why I despise Advocacy Groups

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Why I despise Advocacy Groups

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