Are crashes really worth investigating, aside from the cracking TV series they make?
I'm throwing that out there because yesterday the main arterial road between the south of this great nation and its northwest ~ not least Scotland ~ was closed all day northbound. It was also closed southbound as screens were erected, because we all love a pile-up. Note to government, robotic cars don't.
But we've already the lowest productivity in the developed world, and diverting cars and trucks through Little Snoring all day won't have helped. But the fact there was one fatality and several injuries involved in this collision involving three trucks and a car required an investigation.
At the end of the day, however, it is difficult knowing how anyone will benefit. The dead won't be coming back, the insurers will be paying out regardless and anyone sent to prison in the UK as a consequence will be out sooner than expected and will emerge a criminal if not already: especially as nobody will be hiring them afterward.
A full twenty percent of accidents occur due to one or other driver nodding off, the bulk of these at the circadian witching hour of 03:00 a.m. The accident here took place at 04:10 a.m. and it is much harder to attribute blame to the sleepy driver than it is to the drunk or drugged-up, for like an ice-bullet it leaves no trace.
Offset that against a knock-on effect of billions of pounds and countless cats kicked at home by people like me who've had a bad day. As Jason Arday's case proved we already treat each other as inhumanly as possible, and I foresee a day when rather than investigate scenes we'll bulldoze wreckage out of the way and treat motorists involved as road-kill.
Now turn your papers over children, and:
"Is this a world that you would want, or anyone but Colin would want? Discuss."
10 marks
Ed. Colin is bitter for he applied for a job at the Air Accidents Investigation Branch and failed, principally because his executive summary on the set investigation read 'Shit happens, mate.'
