From some of the reaction I received to my last post, I sense that people are not too happy with the way the police handle traffic issues. I myself have watched in puzzlement as the number of traffic cops in Toronto have dwindled since the 1970s, as regular speed traps disappeared, and most of all the establishment of the Collision Reporting Centres. Although more people die as a result of cars than guns,* police take very seriously the latter, even stepping up their efforts to curb death by gun, than they do the former.

Now that might be that the latter is almost exclusively perpetrated by thugs, criminals, people not like us, well, except for the odd 6-year-old who accidentally picks up a gun or the odd person defending themselves. On the other hand, death by car is usually done by ordinary folks, law-abiding people who have a job, pay their taxes, go to church. OK, perhaps not the latter, but you get the picture. A policeman can’t be arresting people like that every time they kill someone with their car, because the numbers would be huge and after all it could very well be a fellow cop too!

Furthermore, a gun is an obvious weapon. It is made to shoot and kill. A car is made to get someone from A to B. It’s not meant to kill and maim. Yet every year, car manufacturers incorporate some new safety feature to prevent killing and maiming, and so the car’s very design does lead to harm. Still, we — and certainly not the police — don’t consider it a weapon. And so that begs the question, who does the cop think killed that poor sod in the mangled wreck?

Oh hey officer, I feel really bad about that guy. I don’t know what happened. I was just cruising along, minding my own business, and yeah, maybe I got a little too close, I mean I shouldn’t have let my little grey sedan get a good look at the guy’s car cause next thing I know, the high beams flip on, the accelerator depresses under my foot, and we’re heading real fast to his hot little number. Now, you see officer, my grey car just doesn’t like the way those red cars flash sexy signals to everyone around them, screaming how hot they are, and wanted to teach it a lesson. Nothing personal, you know. And hey, I had nothing to do with it. But I assure you officer, it won’t happen again.

When police officers realise ordinary folk are the road ragers and take that seriously before the drivers step out of their vehicles to beat each other up, then they might take the next step and realise ordinary folk also make other real poor decisions that result in destroyed lives, which is not OK either. And maybe when they realise that, they’ll beef up their traffic department and campaign against bad driving, not just drunk driving at Christmas time.

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Update 19 Jan 2007:

An unbelievable thing has happened: Julian Fantino becomes the top Ontario Provincial Police cop, and the OPP attitude to car mayhem changes. Commissioner Julian Fantino has finally seen what other leaders have failed to see: traffic problems are a 24/7 thing. Week-end media blitzes do nothing to curtail the daily carnage on the road, even if it was a treat to watch Cam Woolley as he announced upcoming ones and reported on the results.

“I believe that in the hands of an irresponsible person, a motor vehicle is no less dangerous than a loaded firearm in the hands of an equally irresponsible individual.”

“Every one of these collisions was preventable, every one the tragic consequence of inappropriate driving behaviour.” (Julian Fantino, as quoted in the Toronto Star)

As Dale Anne Freed wrote in the Toronto Star, “Fantino says it’s time for a more sober approach to dangerous driving.” Amen.

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[* I have a sense that this is true, but brain injuries make doing research very difficult, sometimes impossible, and so I have not being able to verify actual numbers of gun versus car deaths and injuries. If anyone would like to take up this baton and find out numbers of deaths and injuries in Toronto as a result of car crashes, sober drivers versus drunk, maybe broken down by causes if known or recorded, that would be awesome. One day I hope I can research properly again, beyond the superficial, find it in 5-minutes-or-less. One day.]

Related posts:

1. Just when you thought it was safe to go outside.
2. Are Drivers Bad in T.O.?
3. CIUT Traffic News
4. Talk About Traffic
5. Are We Still Safe?