Well I thank the lord we returned home safely yesterday from our holiday away. Last night I was amazed at what the road death toll is standing at with a week still to go. I am shattered to learn that the toll was sitting at 1050 last night, statistically speaking with the figures given aprox 25% were drivers and over 35% were pedestrians! I mean wow man that means that the pbiggest portion of deaths on our roads are not even people in motor vehicles!  yes I certainly have blogged on road accidents before however lets face it is the arrive alive campaign targeting the correct people. It would be interesting to see an elaboration on the stats:

• How many pedestrians were killed at night?
• How many drivers were killed after hitting a pedestrian?
• How many pedestrians were over the legal driving limit? They are after all road users?

This certainly would shed light on where the arrive alive campaign should be focusing. I had an idea that all pedestrians coming close to the road should wear reflective armbands or sashes, I believe these have been made however clearly not on a wide enough scale as I have not seen one in use. This would be a great way of advertising not only for arrive alive however also for the breweries, give them out and when people leave the shebeens at night, leaving wearing a sash. Are you aware that in the USA the bars can get the arm of the law coming after them if they serve alcohol to people are clearly over the limit. Yes I know it is not the establishments responsibility to their patrons on this level and the more they drink the more money they make, it is however in their best interest to keep their clients coming back.

In defense of bus drivers – yes I realize their are the rouge drivers out there and that despicable bus driver caught drunken driving – not on and not cool – I believe that bus accidents should be seen with the rest of the stats on road accidents.  Are there more people who use buses than cars over the festive season? What % of road users do bus passengers make up? Is it relative? I am sure it is! Yes in an ideal world we do not want any accidents and certainly not with buses or taxis due to the sheer amount of passengers they carry.

In conclusion I sincerely hope we do not see the current death toll rise any further before the world starts turning again.