He wants the government to come in and clean up the problem…
A resident of Seattle is crying foul after his exterior surveillance camera has caught numerous crashes at a certain intersection. Michael Basconcillo shared a compilation of violent wrecks he collected over the course of 4 years, which spread on Reddit. According to him, there are about 20 crashes captured in his footage, so the government needs to come in and fix things.
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That’s right, over the course of 4 years, the guy’s security camera has recorded around 20 crashes. If that doesn’t sound like a lot, well it’s because it’s not. There’s an intersection not too far from my house which sees about an accident a week, not kidding, so this is nothing. However, this guy’s way of thinking is simple: if the government just intervenes with more so-called safety measures, then accidents there will virtually disappear.
The thing is the Washington State Department of Transportation apparently did make some safety upgrades on the freeway offramp leading up to the intersection. They include extra speed limit and directional arrow signs, but this guy thinks if they just add rumble strips that will solve the problem. I’ve seen people just blast over those things at curves in a road, so even if he got his way things might not turn out how he’s hoping.
At some point everyone needs to understand a fundamental fact: as long as society doesn’t place a high value on being attentive behind the wheel and not driving recklessly, serious road accidents will keep happening. We can have the government impose all kinds of regulations, pass more laws, and the only thing it will do is punish everyone through higher taxes and more ridiculous driving conditions.
But yes, there are some people who think the only way to solve any problem is to get the government to act like it’s solving it. Don’t worry, they’ll make sure to spend a lot of your money and do so with a lot of hoopla so you feel like they’re doing something effective. But as we’ve seen as government regulation in the past several years has jammed more and more onboard safety features in cars, a lot of times that regulatory intervention comes with unintended consequences like road fatalities actually increasing. There are a lot of theories about why this might be, but one can’t deny that the government policies don’t seem to be having the desired effect.
About that intersection by my house that has a lot of crazy accidents: the government here has tried solving the problem, but it’s only gotten worse in the time I’ve been here. You might be familiar with the famous 11-foot-8 Bridge in Durham, North Carolina. Despite all kinds of warning signs, trucks still crash into it often. I’m not saying the government makes these types of problems worse, but it doesn’t always fix them, even if some citizens believe otherwise. Also, I’m not saying the government can’t solve any problems. We just need to acknowledge the necessity for solutions which aren’t always driven by the government, otherwise we’ll just be awash in all sorts of ridiculous, extraneous laws and regulations.
Check out the local report and clips of the crash compilation.
