Accident-free Highways If you were offered safer roads...

[salamangkero 0]

I've been asking this to a lot of my friends for some time now and one of them suggested that I post it here. Anyway, here goes.

 

Suppose you were a president of a nation (or monarch of a kingdom, or emperor/empress of an empire, wherever you live) Now, suppose, too, that a mage (I prefer sorcerers but "mage" was the first word that popped into my mind back then) approached you and offered you the following:

 

1. He will cast a spell that will affect your entire nation.

2. The effect of the spell is that it will prevent all vehicular accidents from ever occurring.

3. For an entire year's absence of accidents, there will be exactly one vehicular accident each year involving at most two vehicles.

4. In exchange for a "peaceful" year (motor accident-wise), the aforementioned annual accident will always result in the most morbid gruesome deaths for the people unfortunate enough to be involved in it. (Limbs thrown around, head, shoulders, knees and toes, you get the picture)

 

The question is, will you accept the offer? (Oh please, suspend your beliefs for the moment, the point is not the existence of actual mages or the effectiveness of spells) And as a side note, will it make any difference if your entire nation knew of your decision or not?

 

So far, almost everyone I knew refused the offer.

 

There was one inclined to accept the offer but, upon finding out that her decision will be broadcasted to the nation, she backed out and said never mind.

 

How about you guys?

 

Oh, by the way, the spell is only applicable to land vehicles.

[possible123 0]

I've been asking this to a lot of my friends for some time now and one of them suggested that I post it here. Anyway, here goes.

 

Suppose you were a president of a nation (or monarch of a kingdom, or emperor/empress of an empire, wherever you live) Now, suppose, too, that a mage (I prefer sorcerers but "mage" was the first word that popped into my mind back then) approached you and offered you the following:

 

1. He will cast a spell that will affect your entire nation.

2. The effect of the spell is that it will prevent all vehicular accidents from ever occurring.

3. For an entire year's absence of accidents, there will be exactly one vehicular accident each year involving at most two vehicles.

4. In exchange for a "peaceful" year (motor accident-wise), the aforementioned annual accident will always result in the most morbid gruesome deaths for the people unfortunate enough to be involved in it. (Limbs thrown around, head, shoulders, knees and toes, you get the picture)

 

The question is, will you accept the offer? (Oh please, suspend your beliefs for the moment, the point is not the existence of actual mages or the effectiveness of spells) And as a side note, will it make any difference if your entire nation knew of your decision or not?

 

So far, almost everyone I knew refused the offer.

 

There was one inclined to accept the offer but, upon finding out that her decision will be broadcasted to the nation, she backed out and said never mind.

 

How about you guys?

 

Oh, by the way, the spell is only applicable to land vehicles.

I would not accept the offer. If there were no accidents on roads, people would become really careless on the roads.

This wouldn't be a bad thing with the spell in effect, but the careless attitude might spill over into other parts

of people's lives. Those parts might affect your nation in a negative way. Suppose everybody started being careless

with money. Most people would end up poor while a selected few have all the money.

 

Knowing that there will be a car accident once a year would make people more nervous. They would know that no

matter how safely that they drive, that they always would still have a chance to die in an accident. Normally,

if you are a safe driver, you are less likely to get into an accident.

 

If you didn't tell the people about the spell, researchers would notice the trends and find out. You couldn't fool

the public forever. That is when the fear of being the one that dies comes in as well as the carelessness.

 

At first, it might look good, but in the long run it would be very bad idea to accept the offer to cast the spell.

[electriic ink 1]

Yes. Vehicular accidents must account for quite a lot of where the NHS' money goes. That would be the most immediate benefit. They'd be no need for a minimum driving age, no need for drink-drive campaigns, speed limits could be abolished so goods would get to places faster, no need for driving lessons. For all those lives that are saved, you can't say no; that single annual accident would probably have happened anyway and even if it wouldn't have, you would just argue that to your people.

 

Consequently, inflation would rise because people have more money and some people would be out of business but people's lives are always more important than capital. These are largely short-term problems that could be overcome.

 

This wouldn't be a bad thing with the spell in effect, but the careless attitude might spill over into other parts

of people's lives. Those parts might affect your nation in a negative way. Suppose everybody started being careless

with money. Most people would end up poor while a selected few have all the money.

No, it wouldn't. Driving would become a hobby as well as a serious means of transport like cycling. I think would enjoy this new-found freedom.

 

Knowing that there will be a car accident once a year would make people more nervous. They would know that no matter how safely that they drive, that they always would still have a chance to die in an accident. Normally,

if you are a safe driver, you are less likely to get into an accident.

All drivers must know at the back of their minds that there is a chance of careless drivers colliding into them. There must be more deaths of drivers being collided into than one per year. This would calm drivers.

 

If you didn't tell the people about the spell, researchers would notice the trends and find out. You couldn't fool the public forever.

I doubt the public would guess a magician cast a spell; would you have guessed that? The government would be praised for lower vehicular accidents and people wouldn't question them so much. The government would simply respond, "it's due to our tougher stance on crime".

[possible123 0]

Yes. Vehicular accidents must account for quite a lot of where the NHS' money goes. That would be the most immediate benefit. They'd be no need for a minimum driving age, no need for drink-drive campaigns, speed limits could be abolished so goods would get to places faster, no need for driving lessons. For all those lives that are saved, you can't say no; that single annual accident would probably have happened anyway and even if it wouldn't have, you would just argue that to your people.

Yes, those are all huge benefits, but remember what I said about carelessness? It might become a habit for a lot of

people. Habits can follow a person everywhere and can affect their destiny in that way. Being careless in driving

could affect other parts of a person's life. Those habits may spread.

 

No drinking and driving campaigns could mean more drinking overall. More alcohol might raise the rate of other crime.

 

Driving would become a hobby as well as a serious means of transport like cycling. I think would enjoy this new-found freedom.

This could raise the price of oil due to high demand. Also having no auto accidents would mean near immortality

as long as a person stayed in a land vehicle and was not the victim of the annual auto accident. This could mean

that a lot of people would be too afraid to leave their cars. There would be more stealing of cars, also because

they provide safety.

 

A big influx of drivers due to no need for a driving age means that traffic would become worse, and goods would not be transported via land as fast.

 

More drivers mean that the roads would wear down faster. More roads would be needed to support the additional traffic.

More roads means that some roads would have to cut across the habitats of animals. A road crossing forest would divide it in two as it is difficult for trees on one side of the road to pollinate the trees on the other side of the road. The forest would be weaker when they are divided. Land animals cannot cross the road to get to necessary mating grounds which might decrease the population of that animal.

 

There would also be more demand for metal. The metal mining industry is extremely unkind to the land.

Having the spell on one nation could affect the environments of where the metal is mined.

 

More people driving cars means more people wanting car repair. Although there are no accidents, you still need

to maintain your car to keep it working. This would mean that more car repair shops would open. Those shops would take up more space, further destroying the environment. You also have to consider that parking lots for any kind of shop would have to be larger because of more drivers. All those parking lots would take up more space too. That space could

be the habitat for wildlife.

 

We already have enough trouble protecting the environment, adding to it might make our situation worse.

 

You also have to consider that there will be one accident involving two cars regardless of how many other cars are there.

There will always be one annual accident with two cars if there are only five cars in the world or five trillion. By that logic, the more cars that there are. the less likely you are going to be in the annual accident.

 

There could also be scams involving devices that the sellers claim that the device will keep you safe from the annual accident. It would be difficult to verify if the devices actually worked because the spell would be in effect.

 

All drivers must know at the back of their minds that there is a chance of careless drivers colliding into them. There must be more deaths of drivers being collided into than one per year. This would calm drivers.

Yes, there is always a chance of being in a car accident only because a careless driver smashed into you. You are more likely to be in an accident if you are careless too. That is the good thing about having normal accidents, you can do your part to prevent them. The annual accident that comes with accepting the offer could happen to anybody, regardless of how safe you drive.

 

I doubt the public would guess a magician cast a spell; would you have guessed that? The government would be praised for lower vehicular accidents and people wouldn't question them so much. The government would simply respond, "it's due to our tougher stance on crime".

Well, I didn't mean that the public would think it would be magic right off the bat. People who keep track of accidents

would notice that the amount of accidents has sharply dropped after one day. They would notice the annual accident

and how horrible it was. In my imagination, spells don't take effect gradually. They would be able to pinpoint the day that the spell was cast. Also in my imagination, that would be the same day that the mage asked the leader and the leader said yes. Somebody might track where the leader went that day. There are many ways to find out the truth.

 

When your country has the lowest rate of car accidents, there might be a lot of immigrants, legal or illegal. Those immigrants would get cars and drive on the roads. Even more drivers would wear down the roads worse than before.

Natural resources might not be able to support those immigrants or they cannot get jobs, making them poor.

 

 

There are a bunch of reasons why not to choose the spell.

Edited March 16, 2007 by possible123 (see edit history)

[t3jem 0]

I would definitly accept the offer. Even if it was broadcasted to everyone in the world, I would accept that offer because it would save many more lives, even if the unfortunate few were mutilated. I would even accept an offer where I had to be one of the people brutally mutilated in an accident, this is an amazing offer that would save everyone money, of course it may put people out of jobs, but at least they won't get in an accident. There are millions of people in the U.S. If there was only one accident in a year with only two vehicles it would be as if there were no accidents at all.

[possible123 0]

I would definitly accept the offer. Even if it was broadcasted to everyone in the world, I would accept that offer because it would save many more lives, even if the unfortunate few were mutilated. I would even accept an offer where I had to be one of the people brutally mutilated in an accident, this is an amazing offer that would save everyone money, of course it may put people out of jobs, but at least they won't get in an accident. There are millions of people in the U.S. If there was only one accident in a year with only two vehicles it would be as if there were no accidents at all.

The family and friends of the victims would care. Everybody cares about death. There are other effects besides saving lives
that I mentioned earlier.

[salamangkero 0]

Whoa! I never expected this XDIn truth, I was only expecting responses like, "Yes, I'd accept. What is the wreckage of two vehicles compared to the safety of millions others?" or, "Hell no! Think of the annual sacrifice/victim's family. They'd find some way to pin it as your fault."I guess you all have a point. I mean, if everybody found out about this safety net (with a hole on one part), driving could very well become a hobby. Now that I think of it, what's worse is that people will blame the accident on you (the president/monarch) instead of the victim's own carelessness.Now, about having more cars on the road, I do think the government could always implement rules to limit the number of vehicles out on the streets. For example, over here, we have a color-coding scheme, which really sounds stupid when you come to think of it because it is actually a number-coding scheme. Anyway, vehicles whose plate numbers end with 0 or 1 are prohibited from going out on Mondays. Tuesdays will see every vehicle except those whose plate numbers end with 2 or 3. And so on, for the rest for the week.However, we forget one thing. I don't really see a sudden surge in the number of cars on the road. See, accidents are not the primary reason why some people keep off the streets. The price of oil and gas is. So even if we had safer highways, not everyone would suddenly up and drive down the lane 'coz not everyone has unlimited gold in their pockets to sustain driving as a hobby. There will be an increase in volume, yes, but I don't think there'd be a "surge" of cars on the street.Demand for cars would still pretty much remain the same, methinks. Just because you could drive a car and not get hurt does not necessarily mean you can already afford one no matter what. That's it, I guess, for the mining industry.Lastly, it still pays to be careful. Like I said, people have ways to make it appears as though, "this horrible accident is the fault of our leader. Had he/she not accepted the offer, this would never have happened." Wrong! In truth, if those idiots behind the wheel only paid closer attention to the road, they'd probably be alive right now and the accident would have happened to some other poor hapless soul who wasn't driving carefully enough.All in all, I see a lot of valid points. For me, I'd accept the offer. I know that more people will take to the streets but I could implement limiting measures. Right after the spell, I'd also warn/broadcast to everyone not to forget safe driving because I bear no responsibility for any accident.Oh, did you know, a lot of accidents are caused by the "human factor"? There is a saying, "to err is human" :PWhat do you guys think?

[arnz 0]

Oh, a tough one. It has its positive and negatives, yet.. there are some out there willing to give it up for the sake of the nation, but to a lesser extent through other causes rather than war. But one thing that would never change, most people will still take the car over other means of transports, despite advertising and other means showing alternatives such as walking, public transport, riding a bike, and so forth.While the proposal, has its positive and negatives. Unfortunately the negatives could overshadow the positives, what if the family involved continued in their attempt to sue those concerned untill they were successful. That would lead to a bit of bad publicity, considering many press tend to focus on the negatives rather than positives.

[salamangkero 0]

True, true, the media do tend to focus on terrible things. After all, they have the news hour filled with horrible accidents, crime and nasty showbiz backbiting. However, that is why I initially said you are the president of the nation. A position of power will (hopefully) give you a more free reins. You could, for all we know, conspire with the media to deny coverage of any post-accident events.Also, I've received lots of feedback implying that the annual sacrifice will, somehow, be the fault, or direct responsibility, of the president, that is, the one who accepted the offer. I am thinking if that is such a wise thing to think, I mean, why can't people blame the mage? Or the driver of the vehicles? Does the death of a person grant them immunity from blame? I mean, c'mon, just because someone died does not mean the government has to go easy on you. If it's your friend's fault, then don't blame us, I mean, the government :lol:How about it? Do you have what it takes to sacrifice a handful of people for the sake of your entire nation?