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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Blair Says Bad Driving More Dangerous Than War |
| 2007-04-24 |
| Tony Blair and ex-Formula One champion Michael Schumacher have led calls for a world conference to end road deaths. The prime minister said motor crashes were the planet's second-biggest killer of young men after HIV/Aids. Mr Schumacher added that the international community needed to wake up to a "horrific waste of life". A recent World Health Organization report found that nearly 400,000 under-25s are killed in road traffic collisions every year. It is estimated that road traffic crashes cause 1.2 million deaths every year, including those of 1,000 young people every day. Each week 70 children are killed or seriously injured in the UK. Up until this point this was a worthwhile news article. BBC editors must have added the rest. Mr Blair made his remarks in a video statement for UN global road safety week in London. He said: "Every minute of every day a child is killed or seriously injured on the world's roads. "Road crashes are the second leading cause of death for young men after HIV/Aids, and in some African countries more than 70% of those killed on the roads are young breadwinners. Presumably this includes those killed while driving by bandits and carjackers. "It is becoming clear that road injury has a serious impact on the wider development goals we are all trying to achieve." Mr Schumacher said: "Road crashes kill on the scale of malaria or tuberculosis, yet the international community has not woken up to this horrific waste of life. "That is why I strongly support the Make Roads Safe campaign and the proposal that the United Nations organise a first ever UN ministerial conference to tackle this preventable loss of life." And hire my contracting company to make them safe. Edmund King, executive director of the RAC Foundation and a co-ordinator of the Make Roads Safe campaign, said that half of all children killed or seriously injured on the roads in England come from deprived areas. If they were deprived of cars this wouldn't happen. "The road safety community in the UK is united behind the call for a UN global ministerial conference to give urgently-needed direction to road injury prevention." Yes, the UN is the answer to everything. |
| Posted by:Glenmore |
| #10 WAFF.com Poster > SARKOZY WANTS MEDITERRANEAN UNION [Part = Unique from Mini-EU???]. Article has graph comparing policy short-points between SARKOZY vs. SEGOLENE. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2007-04-24 22:39 |
| #9 Tell Shoe that Kimi is tryin to kill me and Felipe is giving me a nasty hed ache. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2007-04-24 17:56 |
| #8 A year or two back, I read that all the wars on the planet - including Iraq and Afghanistan - had resulted in an estimated 300,000 deaths in that year, tragedies every one. Highway deaths in that same period were 1.2 million. Where's the outrage? |
| Posted by: Bobby 2007-04-24 16:48 |
| #7 It would be great news if the MSM keeps a daily count of highway deaths. Once the public realizes the numbers are so far off the scale vs. war deaths, the public would simply ignore the war, which they tend to do when they are not personally involved anyway. Personally, I would like a daily count of college student deaths due to binge drinking. |
| Posted by: wxjames 2007-04-24 15:49 |
| #6 man zenster... that is too rich. i got a mental image of it, and it is just crazy enough that the softly softly folks might give it a whirl. |
| Posted by: Abu do you love 2007-04-24 13:51 |
| #5 I think England's real problem is that they drive on the wrong side of the road. From what I've heard they intend to rectify this little problem on a phased basis as per usual British government implementation of programs. At first, the changeover will only apply to heavy lorries. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-04-24 11:20 |
| #4 Ban cars. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2007-04-24 11:08 |
| #3 Has Blair been taking Carter's Little Dementia Pills? While auto accident fatalities are of concern, Islamic terrorism promises to kill many more people, it just hasn't gotten around to it yet. In his leadership role, Blair should remain more focused on issues of national security than face time with some Formula One celebrity. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-04-24 10:32 |
| #2 Imminent Vehicular Crisis |
| Posted by: DepotGuy 2007-04-24 10:02 |
| #1 Driving is especially dangerous for children strapped into the back seat with a bomb in the boot. |
| Posted by: Excalibur 2007-04-24 08:55 |