LARRY, CURLY AND MOE

I have long held the belief that the three stooges of the Provincial Government are the Ministry of Labour (Larry), the Ministry of Transportation (Curly) and the Ministry of the Environment (M.O.E.). I readily admit that this opinion is based upon twenty years plus observations and interaction with the M.O.E., fourty years plus dealing on a much more intermittent basis with Larry and also fourty years plus of dealing at best indirectly with Curly (M.O.T.).

Today's Kitchener-Waterloo Record has a Letter to the Editor by a Mr. Dan Tier of Kitchener. The title is "Provincial road conditions are terrible". Mr. Tier outlines what he feels are greatly reduced safety standards and maintenance particularily on highways in northern Ontario. My long standing contempt for the Ministry of Transport has to be based upon my fourty-five years of both personal and commercial driving in this province. Nevertheless this Letter to the Editor really hit the bottom line for me. Mr. Tier describes recent multiple deaths in car accidents at least partially due to road conditions. It is accidents, deaths and injuries on our roads for decades that turn my stomach. Throughout this four decades plus timeframe we've had massive enforcement against drunk driving for only the last couple of decades. We've always had massive enforcement against speeding but it's been perverse enforcement. Speed enforcement is generally active under perfect weather and road conditions outside of rush hours. As our cars and trucks have seen major technical improvements in tires, brakes, steering and suspension our maximum speed limits on highways have generally remained at eighty or ninety kilometres per hour. These maximums are way too low under good conditions. Yes on snow covered, busy or foggy roads they are too fast which is exactly why they are referred to as maximums.

I have long figured out what is obvious to all long time drivers who are students of driving. That would be at best 1/4 of us. Speed does not kill under ideal conditions with an alert driver. What kills is what I've long referred to as HUA. HUA means head up ass and is how the majority of drivers, whether male, female, young or old drive. HUA means staring ten feet in front of the hood of your moving vehicle. It means conversing intently with your passenger(s). It means planning your work day, free time, upcoming weekend etc. It means driving by habit and by rote. It means slowing down to stare at accidents that are off to the side of the road. It means focusing on anything and everything unrelated to your one and only primary task at hand, watching carefully everything in front, beside and behind you on the road that is either moving or potentially about to do so. For the last couple of years, at long last, the idiots at the M.O.T. have finally begun to realize that HUA kills far more than drunk driving and speeding combined at the same time. They now call it "distracted driving". Fine I'm not going to stand on terminology. Laws against cell phone use in cars are finally on the books yet no surprise still generally ignored. Far too many injuries and deaths still result in minimal charges, fines and imprisonment provided alcohol and speed are not factors. "Distracted driving" or HUA will not be reduced until the police quit chasing speeders under ideal conditions and start focusing on all the other bad driving that are the symptoms of not paying attention and the precursers to death and mayhem on the roads.