20 April 2012

Ban helmets

It is mandatory to wear helmets, seat-belts etc... which saves the irresponsible driver in case of an accident. Wont this protection make the driver try higher speeds, which (s)he may not, if (s)he will not have those protection?

If I were in charge, I will not mandate and might even ban helmets, seat-belts, airbags, other similar safety features that is there to protect the driver, instead of preventing the accident and make sure the driver gets hurt in case of accidents. so that drivers will drive more carefully. ;-)

11 comments:

Johnny Jacob said...

ac·ci·dent/ˈaksidənt/
Noun:
An unfortunate incident that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally, typically resulting in damage or injury.
A crash involving road or other vehicles, typically one that causes serious damage or injury.

Sankar said...

Going at high speeds is not wrong (imo), the autobahn is doing things just fine. Reckless driving is the real issue.

Corruption in driving license processes, road planning, road construction, urbanisation leading to over-population, narrow and non-straight roads, etc. cause more accidents than seat-belts, helmets.

OTOH, if you want to ban speed driving, a better solution is to just ban the sale of any vehicle that goes beyond 70kmph ;)

Nikanth Karthikesan said...

hehe... this was meant to be a [[thought] provoking] joke :)

@Johnny Should I carry an umbrella, even when I don't expect it to rain; Just like I wear helmet for "unexpected" accidents. ;-)

@Sankar I am using high-speed as a relative metric. Even on autobahn, going way above the "mode"(avg:mean, median..) speed will increase the likelihood of an unexpected and unintentional accident. On a road where most vehicles go at 70kmph, driving at 40 kmph is very very hard... and if some one goes at 130 kmph in that road, it makes it hard for everyone. (If you watch F1 it is actually very difficult for drivers of second tier cars to give way and yet race.) BTW AFAIK on busy weekends, people crawl on autobahns.

Johnny Jacob said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Johnny Jacob said...

Depends ... I might not carry an umbrella, but will surely wear a condom. And I'll call that wisdom as common sense :).

Nikanth Karthikesan said...

@Johnny Exactly.. protection lets people go beyond limits.

Johnny Jacob said...

Limits? I'm not entirely sure what you mean by that. A mishap at 70 KMPH (mechanical failures?) or sleeping with the same partner (un-sterlized needles?) might happen for reasons which may not be your own doing. So if you are in your "limits", go ahead - nobody gives a damn.

These rules are there to save the innocent, not the irresponsible. If you decide not to wear them, you deal with it. It is what we call freedom/free will. Society has rules for peaceful coexistence. If it doesn't suit you, find one that is. Or debates like this also helps :)

Nikanth Karthikesan said...

@Johnny Exactly. There is no freedom/free will to drive without helmet, seat-belts etc.. :(

Johnny Jacob said...

Isn't the freedom that we have today was a result of "civil disobedience" :)

Nikanth Karthikesan said...

LOL. I was trying to get support for such a movement, with this post and you stopped me in my tracks.

Chenthill said...

Interesting arguments and nikanth is so good at it :)

I can now understand why its so hard to wake someone who is already awake ;)