[WOODPIE]

The death toll is now ten. The small child passed away in hospital today.

This was a terrible accident. I think the sensational nature of this particular accident, with the accompanied sensationalist reporting, has given rise to another knee-jerk call for more laws and regulations, most all of which are redundant at best and impractical to implement and enforce.

As the states find their budgets collapsing around their ears, one of the more likely departments to face cuts will be the DMV, or DPS or whichever one is charged with issueing and testing for operator's licenses in your particular state. Testing the present day elderly and infirm, and adding to those the millions of "Boomers", on an annual basis is simply not going to happen.

We have people on the road who are:

1. Elderly
2. Physically or mentally ill
3. Drunk
4. Talking on the phone
5. Eating and drinking
6. Attending to personal hygene
7. Picking their nose (whoops, see 5 and 6)
8. Sending faxes
9. Watching video screens
10. Smoking pot, snorting cocaine or crank.

But let an old man make a mess of things, and the call goes out "We just have to get these people off the road!" Gimme a break.....

Personally, I suspect the old man in question suffers from some condition that would frequent upon him some kind of dementia. He has probably had bouts of this more and more frequently lately, and has become accustomed to them. Thus, when the screaming started and the bodies went flying, he assumed it was just another of those "funny spells" he had been having.

Again. Terrible accident. One of thousands. Everyday.

Ed