Australia To Fight iPod Use By Pedestrians 450
Kilrah_il writes "In recent years the number of people killed on roads in New South Wales, Australia has dropped, but strangely enough, the number of pedestrians killed has risen. Some think it's because of the use of iPods and other music players making people not attentive to road dangers (the so-called 'iPod Zombie Trance'). Based on this (unproven) assumption, the Pedestrian Council has started a campaign in an effort to educate the people, but apparently it isn't enough. Now, some are pushing for the government to enact laws to help eradicate the problem. 'The government is quite happy to legislate that people can lose two demerit points for having music up too loud in their cars, but is apparently unconcerned that listening devices now appear to have become lethal pieces of entertainment,' [Harold Scruby of the Pedestrian Council of Australia] said. 'They should legislate appropriate penalties for people acting so carelessly towards their own welfare and that of others. ... Manufacturers should be made to [warn] consumers of the risks they run.'"
Duhh... (Score:5, Informative)
Some Guy (Score:1, Informative)
FYI, Harold Scruby is a nutter who's always on his high horse and jumping to short sighted conclusions..
The reason why (Score:5, Informative)
It's largely because all the news is bullshit.
Australia does not have an internet filter.
Nothing is happening in regards to this story
Somebody making a noise about something, even if that person is a politician in government, is not the same as them actually doing something.
Harold Scruby (Score:5, Informative)
Re:demerits? (Score:3, Informative)
Translate that to the American "Points on your license" phrase. Doesn't sound so childish now.
Re:Sure the *drivers* weren't texting? (Score:3, Informative)
Yeah I ride a bike to work and when I stop at traffic lights I have a nice high POV to look into the interior of cars. I see a lot of drivers fiddling with phones, playing games, etc.
Re:The reason why (Score:5, Informative)
Far be it for me to defend politicians, but this little bit of "policy" as you'd like to call it has come from a not-for-profit group that pretty much amounts to a "Club for Pedestrians".
To wit: [walk.com.au]
There's no cure for stupidity (Score:4, Informative)
[This Darwin award candidate] was struck and killed by a southbound Caltrain while crossing the tracks [...] Witnesses said at the time [he] rode his skateboard around a lowered crossing arm and was listening to headphones when he was hit [mercurynews.com].
Let people be free (Score:2, Informative)
I saw the aftermath of what triggered this media coverage on Saturday night and it was not pretty, a 26 year old woman was jogging on Parramatta Road on the outskirts of the CBD with her headphones in her ears. An ambulance which had its sirens on was passing threough an intersection and she didnt notice it coming...she died at the scene despite the fact that she got instant attention from the occupants of the ambulance. For all the usual sardonic banter here on slashdot about natural selection et al it is sad to think that a young woman has been taken so early from her family and friends.
Despite this I dont think the government can legislate away every single risk in our lives, more people die from smoking than being hit by cars and we arent banning smoking yet...
Re:Insurance (Score:3, Informative)
No, in the US.
It varies state by state, but for example, I looked it up and Florida's minimum injury protection is like 10k. Bodily injury limits to other people paid by insurance are the same limits as the insurance coverage. And property damage for an entire accident can be 10K as well. IIRC, that's for an ENTIRE accident, not per person injured or each car destroyed, etc.
Being underinsured or uninsured, both medically and with car insurance, is a major problem in the USA.
Re:What the.... (Score:5, Informative)
The Pedestrian Council is nothing but... (Score:1, Informative)
Please be aware that the pedestrian council is not a council at all. Its a Commercial Business owned (and ceo'd) by Harold Scruby. They have been sprouting anti car and anti driver bullshit for years. There is no real reason to listen to this mob, and Im unsure why anyone does.
Re:The reason why (Score:3, Informative)
Reading further it seems to be one guy with an agenda and too much free time!
Re:What the.... (Score:3, Informative)
Wait what? (Score:3, Informative)
Despit the above rant, the greens have the balance of power in the senate and would block any filter.
The NBN will be run by a private company NOT the government.
The poster also has no idea about how the NBN will owrk, it is wholesale and backbone only-any services sold will be by private ISP, all of whom will be able to acess the NBN at the same price.
All in all there was not a correct single fact in the whole post!
Re:Duhh... (Score:2, Informative)
When I bought my Sansa Clip, there were warnings about excessive volume,and using it while driving,and during various activities. Most probably don't read or ignore these warnigs. However, you can't legislate away stupidity. We need to stop protecting idiots!
Re:What the.... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:What the.... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:What the.... (Score:4, Informative)
thanks for that information. Its a whole lot easier a pill to swallow that one elected nutjob is making outlandish remarks rather than having to swallow the entire country is bonkers and more than one elected nutjob has come up with this idea.
Who said he was elected? He's just a well-connected lobbyist who has a disproportionate influence on government policy, he's not and never has been (AFAIK) elected to any public office.
The organisation he runs is probably the closest thing to being extremists on road-safety that you can get. They don't just campaign against the usual (and quite real) problems on the roads - drunk driving, speeding, unlicenced drivers etc. They're against everything:
-They're against tow bars because pedestrians walking behind a car with a tow bar can hit their shins on them (open your bloody eyes and don't walk so close to the car!)
-they're against the expansion of cycle paths and cycling in general because they believe it hostile to pedestrians
- they're against segways (they might be wanky but there's nothing really dangerous about them)
- they want to put completely unreasonable restrictions on young drivers such as not allowing them to take passengers at night (great way to increase the numbers of drunk drivers when everyone needs to drive themselves).
Re:That was not whacky at all. (Score:3, Informative)
I never quoted ANY statistics, nice try at a strawman though-FAIL.
Fact is no matter how you disemble, having more guns around makes a place more dangerous-only an overcompensating fool would claim otherwise.
You then go in even more silly territory by mentioning irrational fears. Is there some part of I have never needed to own a gun because in my society guns are extremely rare do you not undestand?
I have no irrational fear of guns in fact when I was younger I did some range shooting
when extemely bored during a country posting. That got boring very quickly.
Most amusingly you call the reality FUD, A gun death is a gun death regardless of who pulls the trigger. No matter how the facts contradict youyou try and defend the indefensible.
But as you cant seem to see past your strawman,
lets look at some facts on homicide(NOT suicide) that even you should understand.
Homicide by gun in .au- .31/100K-16%
the US 2.97/100k-65%.
That is 10 X more gun related homicides in the US by direct comparison.
Overall homicides;
Australia 1.58/100K 1.26/100k non gun related
US 5.5/100K 1.51 non gun related.
Isnt reality a bitch?
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence [wikipedia.org]
You may not be an American but you certainly have the pre-requisite delusions and desires of the worst of them. I pity you dear fuckwad.