Bonefishblues wrote:Has anyone actually done that cost-benefit equation though? It's easy to point to, but what proportion of those injuries actually trouble the NHS for treatment, and at what cost, and similarly what's cost, with what degree of certainty to reduce them by x, y, or z percent?
I'm just a bit sceptical, perhaps because of the many and various business cases I've seen on my travels claiming all sorts of benefits that somehow either never seem to accrue, or more usually, never actually get measured.
I take your point,but usually about every second trip on the motorway,on average a 30 mile trip,I'll see a couple or three cars on the hardshoulder,bumpers piled in sometimes with ambulances in attendance,all due to inattentive driving,I occassionally get caught up in a loooonnnngggggg jam due to a more serious incident.
Around theGM/Cheshire M6,M62,M56,M60 area it only needs one incident and the motorways are choc solid for what can be hours.
Very occassionally there'll be two seperate incidents which can really put the cat among the pigeons and jams can sometimes last all day.
Lots of work time,deliveries,lost,and lots more pollution excreted than otherwise would be.
Just a window into what I see when out in the car or I hear on the radio.
Thing is though these incidents are caused by bad driving of maybe one or two individuals.
I've mentioned on here before of having a grandstand view,two vehicles in front of us,of a loonie on the M5 who cut across the front of an articulated tanker that was forced to brake the trailer swinging sideways knocking two cars out of the way overturning one in the process and collecting a further car under the trailer.
That driver who shot off up the slip road never to be seen again caused the death of a family of three,due to the tanker catching fire with them still in their car underneath the trailer,and four other casualties,one serious in the other two cars,and the M5 North bound blocked for 7 hours.
The human tragedy alone is heart breaking,the rest much less so though not insignificant,how the tanker driver,who escaped uninjured,felt I can only guess.
I've witnessed a few others,not as close up,though a couple were equally as gruesome.