Last Kiss - Pearl Jam
It's not that there has been a lot of deadly car accidents of late but there have been a few that have received significant news coverage and got me wondering. The images stick in my head - not of the victims or the survivors but of the wreckage. This evening someone spoke to the media to complain that most of the crowd at the accident site was talking pictures and videos with their cell phones instead of calling 911 or reaching out to comfort the dying or seriously injured as the wait for emergency personnel continued. I would like to think I could be the one who holds the hand of someone taking their last breaths instead of making a permanent record of the carnage but I honestly don't know. Hopefully continue on my way before I become a hindrance to the emergency personnel. I regret that I have seen the mangled metal that was once a vehicle I could have been a passenger in, so I doubt I would appoint myself photographer.
This past Monday (February 6) in the middle of the morning, two 23 year old women were killed in a head on collision on the 401 not far from Belleville Ontario. For reasons unknown, one of the women entered the highway going in the wrong direction and collided head on with another vehicle which instantly killed that 23 year old woman. Also unknown is how long she was travelling westbound in the eastbound lanes before the crash. One woman has come forward to say that she swerved out of the way to avoid the small red car going the wrong way, but there is no information to say if she called to alert authorities. I'm not on the highways everyday, but I can tell you that anytime I have been in that vicinity there has been a fair number of cars. She must have been seen by cars having to avoid her or cars travelling in the adjacent westbound lanes. If the accident had occurred on the weekend instead of a Monday morning, the first assumption would have been alcohol related causes. But nothing has been said about a possible cause. Not of sound mind for sure - alcohol, drugs, sleeping or distracted? Yes, distracted - depending on how long she had been going the wrong way.
Anyone familiar with the highway system around the Greater Toronto area will have a story or two to tell about the driver who's head just popped up as they were drifting into another lane having bent down to retrieve something, or the driver averting their eyes to reach for their coffee, smokes, cell phone. Drivers changing the CD, radio station or cabin comfort controls. The drivers reading a book or a map. The drivers applying makeup, shaving, combing hair, primping. Or the drivers who very nearly cause a collision because they spill food or coffee on their laps! I used to regale the children with stories of how in the days before coffee holders in vehicles were the norm, I would balance a coffee on my knee or with three fingers of the left hand while the ring and pinkie gripped the steering wheel, while I reached for the cigarettes and lit myself a cigarette. Plus, with a coffee in one hand and a cigarette in the other, the window and the radio had to be manually operated. Now that was distracted driving! But there was not the volume of traffic then either.
Yesterday, February 7th, 11 people were killed when a truck collided with a 15 passenger van. The preliminary investigation concluded that the van had gone through a stop sign and t-boned by a truck and then pushed some 50 metres to rest alongside a house. The truck was attempting to avoid the van when it swerved and rolled over, killing the driver. The driver, who seems to be largely ignored by the media is the only true victim here. The media seems to be focusing on the 10 migrant workers from Peru who were killed and the families they left behind. But as sad as that is, the 38 year old truck driver who also left family behind should not be neglected after all, he was on his way home to celebrate a wedding anniversary. It is a tragedy all around for sure.
Questions have arisen regarding the suitability and qualifications of the van driver and the van itself. It turns out that the driver did not possess the required class of licence to be operating a 15 passenger van, despite friends and people who knew him claimed that he was a conscientious and careful driver. The issue of using a van to carry so many people has come into question once again. Indeed, in January of 2008 7 teenage members of a basketball team and the coaches wife were killed when they were travelling to a tournament in a 15 passenger van near Bathurst New Brunswick. One of the boys mother has been lobbying to have the vans banned from passenger transportation.
I am not going to pass judgement on the young lady who took the wrong turn and cut her own life sort along with a strangers. There will be enough blame laid on the driver of the van without me adding to it or questioning his driving abilities. What I am going to question is the issue of distraction. Most provinces in Canada now have some form of distracted driving legislation in place, I wonder if it is enough? The problem is not the device but the fact that the drivers attention is removed from the task of driving. I would suggest that movies playing in the back of my head rest can be distracting, so can using the vehicle as a mobile restaurant. Whether I have one hand holding a phone to my ear, or holding a cigarette (no, I do not smoke any longer), reaching for a stick of gum or changing the radio station, song on the iPod or switching out the CD. It is all distraction. So is the four or five lanes of traffic whizzing by in the same direction as me while I try to locate the one sign that will tell me I am going the right way. We cannot stop distracted driving. Dare I say that whether I am having a conversation on a phone (hands free, hand held, or speaker) I can be distracted. If it is an intense or emotional conversation, by reaction will be the same. The only benefit to having such a conversation with a passenger is that they may be able to act as an additional pair of eyes to watch the road. But then maybe having 14 mouths and 28 eyes is too much. I have driven with two kids in the car and been distracted - especially as a new mom with a fussy baby in a car seat. At least I could comfort my baby at a stop sign/light, now babies are forced into the back seat - that is a distraction! So lets put ourselves back into this van. 13 people who have just finished a days work, they all have stories to tell and the enthusiasm and clamour distract the driver for just a moment. And a moment is all it takes to shatter the lives of so many in so short a time. Maybe the 15 passenger van should be banned because there is no greater distraction than our fellow man. Maybe we can focus on teaching drivers how to deal with distractions. Either that or ban all drive-thrus and electronic gadgets for the car. We need to stop believing that the lowly cell-phone is the only distraction to drivers. Have you ever seen the driver seemingly arguing with themselves while they have a growth coming out of their ear - an enraged driver for sure!
It is not just two young ladies, ten migrant workers and a truck driver - families, friends, loved ones, co-workers the circle of those affected is much greater! Even I have been affected and I don't have any association with any of the victims - but I have been there.
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