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During last year 2010 there were 1.2 million deaths on the world's roads, yet 817 people were killed in plane crashes. But which set of statistics got the most media coverage? Obviously it was the 817 killed in plane crashes.
The problem is when a plane crashes it is never viewed as a simple accident, someone is always to blame; the pilot, the maintenance crew, the company for saving costs etc. However, in a road crash the public normally view it as an accident or 'act of god'.
We have just been through a couple of harsh months with the snow, and although Heathrow and other airports got a lot of criticism about closing the airport, most people understood that on safety reasons they had no choice. Yet it was reported on the local South news (Monday 10 January 2011) that many crashes occurred on the roads in Bracknel,l Berkshire because of ice, despite the road being gritted on Sunday 9 January. A spokesman for Bracknell Borough Council said "even gritting will not get rid of every patch of ice". He is of course right. So should all roads be closed when it snows? The argument has to be if airports close on safety grounds, yet only a handful of people die worldwide in plane crashes, it has to be right to close roads when there is a far greater risk of fatalities!
Clearly you will be thinking I am totally mad if I want all roads closed simply because of snow -. you would be right, but I am not advocating total road closures. The point I am making is how we view road deaths.
Let's take a look at an airline pilot and a company driver. The airline pilot has a structured training programme but most learner drivers save money by taking just enough driving lessons to scrape through the test. Pilots need to attend ongoing refresher training but very few drivers complete any further training after passing the driving test. Pilots have strict policies and procedures to follow, not many companies even have a safe driving policy and how many drivers keep up to date with the Highway Code? Pilots can only work for limited hours to prevent fatigue, company drivers often work excessive hours.
I don't think we should regulate driving to the same extent, as we expect the airline industry to be regulated. However maybe we should have more regulation and enforcement of companies that put road safety well down on their priority list. You wouldn't get on a plane with a pilot who had just scraped through a basic flying test, who had been working for the last 15 hours and on a aircraft that hadn't been serviced because the company had to save a few pounds would you ? Yet every day we share the roads with drivers, who statistically we stand more chance of being killed by.
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