One striking feature of driving is that it is one of the few skills that people acquire that can kill when you get it wrong. For most other skills we can get it wrong and there are no life threatening consequences. One is hard pressed to find any skill that we acquire that has such significant life threatening consequences. However, I have just taken up one which I think is going to take off as a major success. Knife throwing. To get the full flavour of this we need a few volunteers so that at the end of the talk we could have some people to stand against a board. I will then try to get the knives in the target and not in your body. We did have to get insurance for this which cost a fortune because they argued that I am just at the start of my knife throwing career. Don't let that put you off - I am very confident about this. You can ignore the fact that you have heard about young drivers being very confident. I thought we might simulate some pedestrian crossing by getting some of you to walk across my path when you think it is safe to cross. So I need some volunteers to stand at the board and some to walk across. Just put up your hand. There is something about sharp pointy objects that makes danger transparent. Of course cars are designed to look soft and cosy and comfortable and they crush and pulvervise the life breath out of our children, our parents and ourselves if we are not careful. I have done some market research and I think that knife throwing will sweep across the country. Naturally there will be a few errors along the way. Our projections are that about three and a half thousand will die each year and maybe three hundred thousand injuries. However, I think that will be acceptable. When people complain about the casualties, I will simply argue that knife throwers should not be discriminated against since the casualties associated with driving are about the same. People will say there should be a licensing system such that only when your skill has developed will you be licensed to do dangerous activities. I will accept that the advantage of a graduated licensing system is that one increases exposure to risk gradually as the skill level increases. Drivers drive too fast for the conditions if they are driving too close to the vehicle in front, and they are more inclined to commit driving violations. They may not be more inclined to drink and drive but if they do it is more likely to have an adverse effect. They do a higher proportion of their driving at night, which makes them vulnerable to fatigue, and they have very poor hazard perception skills. What educators need to do is to persuade, train and require new drivers to adopt slower speeds. They need to ensure that they adopt greater following distances. They need to drive home the message on drink and drugs. They need to force drivers to pay attention to the dangers of fatigue, and they need to ensure, through hazard perception testing, that new drivers have the skills to face the dangers ahead.
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