The Cost of Safety

I‘ve said before that that every safety improvement is the reaction to deaths, probably lots of deaths. Why does that air intake need to be farther from the gas lines? Lots of people died. Why does that door need a crash bar? Lots of people died. The cost of safety is paid in blood, and paid in advance.

Never is this more clear than when it’s strictly a local improvement, and we have a wonderful example today. Last year there was an engineering assessment on a local highway, Highway 97, that recommended putting barriers between the north and south lanes. On the north section the barriers went up right away. On the south section, it was delayed. I’m not really sure why… there’s a gap already, so it’s a mere matter of trucking the barriers in and setting them down. My guess is it’s because they ran out of money.

There were at least five fatalities on that highway last year due to crossing into oncoming traffic following that assessment. I’m not don’t know how many there have been this year… but we came awfully close to some more today. Three people seriously injured, just hours before the official announcement of the new barriers.

The news article called this ironic. I think the bigger irony is that although the barriers are the best thing to do, they might not have helped in this case… the crash was between two northbound vehicles when one tried to make a u-turn. If barriers kept that driver from turning right there he would just have tried to turn at the next gap.

I’ve been lucky enough to not see any fatalities on that stretch of road yet. Hopefully the barriers get placed fast enough that I never will.