When I was five years old I had a friend, and sad to say after all this time I cannot even remember his name. How easily does time wipe from our minds those we say to care about. One day I said to my mother I wanted to go and play with him, it was at this prompting that my mother told me that I couldn’t, nor could I play with him ever again. For my little five year old friend had been run down and killed by a double decker bus. My childish thoughts made not a great deal of this, the full horror of this event slowly made its imprint on my mind the older I got until now six decades later. Today I look back and see in hindsight the utter waste of a small life, the devastation that this must have had on that family. At this time of the year (Christmas) I see the joy that a small child should have had, but was denied. I see the mother wrapping presents for her little boy, in expectation of the smiles and happiness that this would bring on Christmas morning. I see the proud father taking his son for a ride in the park on his new cycle that Father Christmas had brought him that day. But for my friend’s family this was not to be, for them it was heart ache and pain. For them it was a visit to a small grave on that cold grey Christmas morn and to weep at thoughts of happier times and to know that their child would no more be a part of their family life.

      But this was an event that impinged upon my life only to a minor extent. How much more so for those it struck like some unwanted nightmare into their everyday existence. To receive that knock on the door, that phone call to go to the hospital and then to find your child or loved one dead. Never again to hold them, speak to them or feel their hand upon your cheek.

       So where can one apportion the blame for these tragedies, after all accidents do happen. A moment’s inattention by a driver, a child absent mindedly crossing a busy road, there are a myriad of reasons. Of course the ones we cannot excuse are those of the speeding car, and the drunk or drugged driver. In this day and age it seems that these disgusting creatures use this fact as an excuse for their deadly actions. I have no doubt whatsoever that this Christmas will not be a joyful occasion for some families owing to a loved one being killed by a drunk driver. This will be death by selfish overindulgence, death of an innocent by use of a deadly weapon and death with no possible excuse.

        Although road accidents are now part of modern life does that really mean that we should accept it, does this mean that this is the price in human life that we have to pay for the creature comforts in today’s society? If we as the body populous decide that the death toll on our roads is too high then we as voters have the ability to change things. We can change things if WE consider it right and proper. We could reduce the speed limit on all suburban roads to twenty miles per hour and motorways to forty; after all it is the speed of the vehicle that kills. But would you as an individual be prepared to pay the cost financially, or pay the cost in time to stop people being killed? 

     All the laws pertaining to road safety are designed to bring down the level of road casualties. This having been said then that means that the government has in mind a level of death that is acceptable to them and to the public. If they are to say that no level of death is acceptable then there is obviously one solution that will achieve a figure of nil deaths. Ban all cars and vehicles off our roads! If they now say that this is not a practical action then there must be a level of acceptable deaths on our roads, for to say otherwise defies logic. You either accept that deaths will occur or ban all traffic. The government and the people are therefore committed to an acceptable death rate on our roads. Until of course that death rate hits your own family, then it becomes personal and no longer an academic fact that one can play mind games with.  In this season of good will and merriment, it is to be hoped that someone’s merriment is not the cause of someone’s death. How far are you prepared to go to save a life on the road? Are you prepared to leave the car behind when you go drinking, or are you still going to take the chance on killing someone? Are you prepared to slow your vehicle, to take just a little longer, or are you going to be a perpetrator in the acceptable death rate? No doubt it has crossed your mind that I have a personal stake in this; well as a matter of fact I don’t. The closest I have come to this kind of tragedy is my little friend of five, but I can imagine how I would feel if one of my family had been taken in such a manner. An accident is one thing but for it to be caused by a drunk is unforgivable.