Miata Mailing List: August 1997, Message #137
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From: 	Lanny Chambers <lanny@derived.com>

Subject: Re: Safety of a Miata

Date: 	Sat, 2 Aug 1997 19:17:38 +0000



On 8/2/97 13:38, Espen Tandberg (miata@alpha.bowe.no) wrote:



>People rarely mention active safety when talking about car safety.



Of course not. It's not easily enough quantified to be comprehensible by 

government bureaucrats and legislators, and by its very nature it 

requires the attention of a skilled driver to be effective--a concept 

that vote-driven bureaucracies avoid out of abject fear, since it might 

mean some of their constituents would have to start learning  bus routes. 

Regardless of the lip service accorded the "priviledge" of driving an 

automobile, in truth it's accepted as an inalienable right--at least in 

the U.S., and I suspect everywhere else as well--not to be limited by 

"undemocratic" skill-based classification. The driving test here is a 

joke, as you may know, and every high school kid feels he must drive his 

own car to school. It's a wonder any at all survive to graduate, yet the 

public weeps and moans when a carful of drunk teenyboppers bites The 

Saturday Night Big One. I, OTOH, sigh in relief that I was safe at home, 

probably reading this mailing list.



Personally, I have a large philosophical problem with mandated safety. 

What happened to natural selection? Those of us who care will buy, equip, 

maintain, and operate our cars to be safe, because we want to live and we 

understand the concept of cause and effect. Those who drink and drive, 

for instance, will be weeded out regardless, and good riddance. I propose 

a National Highway Anarchy Day, where all speed limits and other traffic 

laws--including stoplights--would be suspended for 24 hours, and the 

wheat separated from the chaff. (only half joking) Oh, BTW...don't look 

for *me* on the road that day!



I don't know what to say about Monster Miata buyers...what percentage 

live past the first month?  :-)



---

Lanny Chambers, St. Louis

'94C. Red, of course.

Team "My other car is a...er...hmmm...gee, I can't remember..."