Car safety and the decline of our society

2/14/07

My wife and I were watching the idiot box the other evening when we were treated to a commercial touting the safety features of the Toyota Sienna, which is, by the way, a very fine vehicle. While discussing standard airbags, available stability control and the like, the ad showed a young mother who, while driving the car, turned around, taking her eyes COMPLETELY OFF THE ROAD to gaze adoringly at her toddler, supposedly safely ensconced in his (or her) safety seat properly positioned in the middle of the second row.

Do any of the highly paid executives at Toyota or any of its astronomically compensated ad agencies see the irony of featuring a careless, inattentive driver in an ad touting the SAFETY FEATURES of one of its vehicles?

Ads like this serve to reinforce the currently very popular American notion that the safety technology imbedded in our cars enables us to drive like COMPLETE IDIOTS. This is, of course, an alarming trend to old school curmudgeons like me who would counsel less reliance on whiz-bang safety technology and more usage of very basic, old-fashioned safety equipment which I formerly supposed was included with every car sold in this country. I speak specifically of turn signals. If turn signals were used every time the law supposedly requires, one marvels at the reduction in “accidents” that would ensue.

Note that I referred to turn signals as “safety equipment which I formerly supposed was included with every car sold in this country.” I used to labor under the silly notion that such signals were standard equipment on any car available in this country, or the world, for that matter. However, judging from the number of times I have actually seen these apparently mysterious gizmos in action, they must be very expensive options that few drivers choose to purchase. I can also only conclude that they are unavailable at any price on any SUV or crossover from an “upscale” brand.

I am also reminded of perhaps the cleverest bumper sticker I have ever seen. In general, I think bumper stickers are yet one more thing that distracts us from what should be our first priority when behind the wheel. No, I don’t speak of making that phone call or checking out the map on the navigation system. I speak of driving the car. But I digress. This particular bumper sticker is so clever that its use should be encouraged. It said:

“Forget World Peace. Envision Using Your Turn Signal.”

Besides turn signals, we should also apply the quaint faculty of common sense when we are driving our portable communication/dining/personal grooming/otherwise inanely communicating devices. However, counseling Americans to use their common sense is such an outdated notion that even I, out of a sense of courtesy or the unwillingness to be dismissed as a hopeless anachronism, occasionally refuse to buck the seemingly irresistible tide toward self-indulgence and irresponsibility as an inherent right.

The Insightful Pontificator