Thursday September 27, 2007
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Thursday September 27, 2007 | How Did The Human Race Ever Survive Until Now? | Kids |
Pam Kong's recent post, along with Craig Bender's and Dan Lacher's comments, reminded me of discussions I've had with my own parents about child
safety. Given that I agree with most of the safety precautions we take
these days, I also wonder how much safer these extra measures really make us.
Are we just a little safer, with the illusion of "total" safety, or are
we really much, much safer?
We recently rode in a friend's minivan and our daughter sat in their extra car seat. As I put her in I noticed that it was very old and improperly installed. I'm pretty sure that it would have done nothing in an actual accident. I did my best to quickly fix what I could (it was pre-LATCH tech) but all I remember from that drive was worrying about being in accident. Fortunately it was a short drive.
Craig/ThinGuy made the comment about never wearing seat belts as a kid. I, too, have many memories of long drives with nothing in terms of safety. We had a 1964 Volvo P544. No, I'm not that old but my dad liked old cars. He would disassemble the back seat so both the bottom and back rests were horizontal. This so my sister and I could both lie down and sleep. It also exposed the trunk, electrical wiring and much bare sheet metal. Still, I felt safe back there.
As we grew older we (kids) would usually sit in the front seat. We would
shift the gears. Later we would even steer the car. Sometimes we'd do
both. With bench-style seating this is easier than it would be today.
Today my father would probably be arrested for child endangerment and locked up
next to Britney Spears.
On the plus side, I passed by driver's test with ease. I drove our other Volvo, a 1966 P1800.
So, were we just lucky and stupid? Or is safety less about the equipment and more about taking the right precautions and fully understanding the risks? While I'm sure we are technically safer, much of our safety could just be illusion. If we become too reliant on the technology to keep us safe then we run the risk of failing to use common sense and may become less safe as a result.
That's when the robots will take over and kill us all.
Tags: car safety seatbelts seats
September 27, 2007 10:51 AM PDT Permalink | Comments [5] |
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Kevin Chu, Some Rights Reserved.
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