Driving Your Own Road-Safety
A few years ago, UMPH saw a doco in which one pundit suggested that a big, sharp spike mounted in the centre of a vehicle's steering wheel would be a very effective road safety device, his theory being that the clear and present threat of a grisly death would ensure that the driver drove sensibly and thus avoided crashing in the first place. The expert was probably only half joking but the thought has stayed in UMPH's mind ever since. It doesn't really matter if the spike-advocate was having a laugh, thinking laterally or was just plain mad, because his idea will never eventuate. In fact, the safety aspect of vehicles' design and manufacture has now become one of their largest selling points and, rather than scaring motorists into driving more cautiously, the trend has been to cosset them more and more from any threat of harm through the ever-increasing use of technology. Take, for example, Ford's new Ranger utes (or pick...