motorway madness

For the last several weeks I have been hearing on the radio at work, on a daily basis, about yet another RTC, formerly RTA that has occurred on the motorways or major roads, sometimes even both, of the road networks that run through my area.

The mayhem, inconvenience and untold delays these events cause to other road users are one symptom of events that occur that involve serious injury or all too often fatalities. Whilst suffering the inconvenience of delays itis all too easy to forget the feelings of those who have suffered loss & injury. We refer to this nowadays as life threatening or life changing as opposed to major, serious of very serious likely to be fatal.

This occurs every year during the main holiday season, regularly and without fail on an annual basis.

Two things strike me, also on a regular basis.

I am amazed at how some of our community are so heartless and selfish to the plight of others. Some treat death and serious injury as no more than a whim. I doesn't affect them so they don't give a toss. I am amazed at the total lack of consideration that others of our community show on the roads, often bordering total contempt.

I am also amazed at the levels of blatantly poor or dangerous driving, some of which is behind a lot of these accidents-collisions that disrupt what should be a time of people enjoying holidays.

Combine the two things and there is a recipe for disaster.

People who normally only drive short distances and the general intolerance and lack of consideration for others and you have our roads network in the summer. They get mixed in with the normal everyday people who drive as part of their living and seem to swell the road burden to an amazing level.

Police wrongly get the blame for much of this mayhem caused by road closures, diversions or blockages.

These are no longer scenes of traffic accidents-collisions. They are scenes of crimes and needed to be treated with such importance. We get one chance to get the scene examination done properly. Its no good when and if things go to court 10, 12 or 18 months later saying that this or that wasn't done at the time. We owe it to those injured or killed and their families to do the job properly. It will continue to piss off most of the poor sods caught up in untold delays and those jams that don't seem to move for hours. I know because I've been there as well.

Until the menace of impatience, intolerance and lack of consideration are removed this cycle of mayhem will continue.