Children playing in the street run the risk of being run over by a car or other motorised vehicle. Indeed, a great many children do fall victims to speeding cars. The risk of accident involving children during holiday is at its highest point during the holiday times such as Easter, Christmas and the Summer vacations. For this reason, the Government runs a hard hitting TV campaign during these times to increase awareness amongst parents, carers and guardians. Children very often play the role of the victims and rightly so.
Slogans like…
…… if you hit me at 20 miles an hour speed there is 70% chance that I will live and if you hit me at 30 miles an hour speed there is a 70% chance that I will die….”.
Extensive use of the special effects and camera tricks is made to really drum the message home to drivers and car owners. In brief, the cost of running an awareness and informative campaign runs into millions of dollars each year. 99.9% of the general public will agree with expense as such campaigns actually save lives.
Contrast the above sentiment and sound reasoning/logic with information in the public domain where a great deal of emphasis is placed on using features such as top speed of 155 miles an hour and acceleration figures of 3.4 seconds from the standing position to 60 miles an hour as unique selling propositions.
Should the car manufacturers be allowed to make cars as fast as they want?.
People in some quarters may well argue the point that ….”the car manufacturers are simply making vehicles which the market wants, desires and to some extent actually needs….”.
So where do you draw the line between child safety and market needs? Clearly, there are arguments and quiet valid arguments for both cases. However, human life and its preservation must be and should remain the top priority in the hierarchy of priorities if there is such a thing. In order to address the issue of child safety and the world safety and our safety the following factors must be given due consideration in creating and building future homes:-
1)Residential areas, towns and cities should become no go areas for cars or other vehicles.
2)A public transport infra-structure must exist which adequately serves all the commuter areas so that it makes cars completely redundant.
3)Peoples right to car ownership must also be addressed. People should own and use a car if they choose to. But these cars/vehicles must be stationed near access routes to major roads as opposed to present parking arrangements of having cars on the streets.
In conclusion.. cars have become a necessity for the modern world. They are a great tool for travelling from point A to point B at will. But, cars are now encroaching on our lives as well as compromising the well being of our future; our children. Streets are now owned by cars and really streets belong to people and not cars. Moving cars out of the streets will give the ownership of streets back to people and our children to have and to enjoy them.
A radically different thinking is required to address this issue and now. Such measures as touched upon in this article will help us achieve a more greener world and living spaces. And, who knows by so doing we may live on this planet a bit longer otherwise I see severe problems waiting for us just round the corner. Cars are not dangerous.. we are not using them properly.