Hazard detection and safety development is threatened by driver-blaming use of recorded pre-crash data from cars involved in accidents. Inhuman system properties remain undetected, if reconstructions focus on individual guilt.
The Nightly News video clip below and its transcript indicates a belief that “making cars safer” is a simple and reactive task to be carried out by “police and insurance companies” after accidents.
Nothing is said about multi-causal analyses and inter-disciplinary syntheses for proactive educational, technical and organizational improvements in the road traffic system.
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
The public and authority attitude to accident “causes” seems embarrasingly equal to that of witchcraft centuries ago. Safety-irrelevant but illegal or immoral deviations from normal behaviour are alleged to blame an individual for accidental damage, though it is unintentional by definition.
Thereby, complex interactions and unknown hazards in the biological, technical and social systems may remain unknown to strike other individuals in various future combinations.
Thanks, Scott Baker, for sharing the video
in the LinkedIn Group Accident Reconstruction.