That to me doesn't make it an accident, except in rare occasions. It is usually either bad driving or driving under the influence, which to me doesn't constitute an accident.
Agreed, but I presume there is sometimes a difficulty in doing so in certain cases, for fear that the publicity might prejudice future criminal proceedings?Equally, not reporting it as drunk driving when there is evidence to hand (reliable eye-witness accounts) is also not responsible.
When there is a dedicated class in schools (or a section on it as part of the driving theory test) to teach the physics of driving and what can happen and why, then we may have less deaths on our roads that are not related to drink-driving.
Pique318, that sounds like a good idea (are there any such courses available?). However, I have had problems with signs, mainly on wet nights in Dublin. In an unfamiliar area, you approach a junction with no signs to tell you if you are at the junction you are taking or not, and with no way of seeing if there are lane markings, or where they are, without a hope of seeing if there's a bus lane or not, until you are at the junction. (in the rain, it's hard to tell road markings from the shiny lines left when the road has been repaired). So you have no hope of knowing where you are going, or where on the road you should be even if you do know, until the last minute. At the same time you have cars driving at you who know the road and are irritated that you are dithering. I find these situations dreadfull... (though they don't happen often)
ubiquitous - falling asleep at the wheel is bad driving in my books.
This has been discussed here before and I think we all know that none of us (including the journos) can be sure of the details in the hours and days immediately following an incident until a full investigation has been carried out, so to report something as clearly the result of drunk driving may not be responsible. Equally, not reporting it as drunk driving when there is evidence to hand (reliable eye-witness accounts) is also not responsible.
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I think that there is a suspicion internationally that driving classes in schools lead to increases in the numbers of schoolkids driving, leading in turn to higher rates of accidents and fatalities.
That's a very sweeping statement. Three kids have died in the past 36 hours in 2 accidents that could not be categorised as cases of "bad driving" or "driving under the influence"
You ignore the effect of bad road design and the phenomena of over-tiredness and people falling asleep at the wheel.
There is very little the authorities can do to stop over-tiredness (its isn't an offence to drive while tired), so they downplay it.
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