Fatally Flawed Reliance

Yesterday a few critics disliked my comment on the Wisbech Discussion Group suggesting that a relying on the green man signal might be imprudent. There was allegedly anger because I suggested that reliance on technology can be fatal. Fortunately there was also some support for my comment too, some people understood. 
Here I just want to explain why I wrote my comment in the hope that those finding my words unhelpful might understand. 

There had been no accident. No life lost. The parent was blessed, she was offered the chance to learn from the event where so many others have not had that opportunity. On this occasion there was no accident, and my advice to be sure the vehicles had stopped was merely relaying the road safety instructions within the government guidelines. Nothing new.

When there is a loss of life one must be careful about offering advice or warnings to others. Speak too soon and you may be seen as insensitive and somehow critical of the victim, speak too late and another life may be lost. 

Years back my husband recovered a young man’s body from the Margaret River. Hardly more than a boy this lad had arrived in town with his mates just a few hours earlier, been to the pub and then raced down to the river and jumped in. He was excited to be starting his holiday, but he never surfaced again from that first dive. He didn’t know how deep the water was, if there were rocks beneath, nor did he understand how the temperature of the water and the alcohol in his body might create a catastrophic event.

Should the local paper publish a warning to others alongside the report of his death? Or would that be considered unhelpful and suggesting somehow that the young man was a fool, making the tragedy more unbearable for his family?

Another sad end to a Margaret River visit occurred when two Korean lads went fishing off the rocks. They were swept away and both perished. My husband and his SES team mates had the unenviable task of recovering the bodies.Were the Koreans to blame for their own deaths? Should we warn others that it is vital to seek out local knowledge before venturing onto the rocks? Would that upset their family?

It is my opinion that we have a duty to voice our opinions whenever other lives might be lost if we don’t. In both those cases mentioned above the fatalities were avoidable. Such accidents do not occur within the local community, such incidents always involve visitors, often young back packers enjoying the excitement of their first venture into independent travelling.

In the Wisbech road crossing incident technology was involved, there was clearly a stated reliance on the green light. My interest in technology and human behaviour began as informal observations, was later channelled into formal study and academic research, and continues to this day. I enjoy technology in all its many frustrating and irritating forms, but I continue to fear for the resilience of generations who place too much reliance on it.

Back in 2011 my husband and I worked together on a book recording the history of a bushfire that fifty years earlier had destroyed the townsite of Karridale, the small town in Western Australia where we lived. We were both active members of the local volunteer bushfire brigade and had spent many hours researching fire behaviour, planning law and other related matters before embarking on this work of local memories.

As we gathered the stories what most struck us was that the ill equipped farming community of 1961 managed to avoid any loss of life, and only one empty home was lost to the fire. The homes at that time were all wood and tin, with no fire retardant materials.

At the time we were writing up our local Karridale history project in 2011 we were also trying to learn what we could from the enquiries into the Black Saturday Fires of 2009, and making our submissions to the ongoing enquiry into the Perth Hills Fires. Just a few months after the Karridale Bushfires 1961 book was published we had devastating bushfires much closer to home in Margaret River.

The Black Saturday Fires fires occurred in 2009 and claimed 173 lives, the Perth Hills Fire destroyed 71 homes, and the Margaret River 39 homes, fortunately these last two involved no loss of life.

Three important factors stood out in comparing 1961 events to the more recent events, the reliance on technology, the reliance on the State to keep its citizens safe, and the fragile psychological condition of many residents – they just couldn’t cope.

Of the 173 lives lost in Victoria many could easily have evacuated their properties and been safe, but instead of leaving swiftly or defending actively against the oncoming fire the residents sat passively watching the fire approach. They were waiting for their technology to deliver a text telling them to evacuate. They relied on a message from the government agency they had subscribed to. In Australia there is a system where you register your address and mobile telephone number and the system then sends an alert when there is a bushfire threatening your location. However, these alerts will only be transmitted while the infrastructure supporting the mobile network and the electricity supply remains undamaged. 

“Nowhere is modern man’s fatally flawed reliance on the power of the State more evident than in a review of the evidence available after the 2009 Black Saturday Fires in Victoria, undertaken by Prof John Handmer. He reported that many of those who perished had been sending text messages, and trying to make telephone calls, up until the moment they perished.”

Karridale Bushfires 1961

We would argue that Handmer should also make it clear that modern man has a fatally flawed reliance on technology.

In the Perth Hills Fire many home owners relied on the city water and electricity supply to operate their fire fighting and sprinkler systems. In a bush fire both can fail. Others had water systems made of black polypipe, and plastic water tanks which failed as soon as the heat became intense. 

In 1961 the residents of Karridale did not have an electricity supply unless they had their own stand alone generator, the water tanks and pipes were all metal, and the people were self-reliant. They formed their own community group, built their own community hall and organised a volunteer fire brigade just a few years before the 1961 bushfire. The only resources they had were whatever they could muster for themselves, no government assistance, no grants. They had no cash, but they had what Ron Sparks, the local bobby called pioneering spirit. 

To date none of the Facebook comments on the Wisbech traffic light problem have been suggesting enhancements to the technology. I wonder why? Is there any pioneering spirit active in Wisbech? 

Are there any technology related interventions that might improve controlled crossings, and if so will concerned parents ensure they are swiftly implemented? Or will those worried parents wait passively for the State to deliver?

• Automatic cameras that trigger when a red light signal is violated by a vehicle.
• A camera that displays the speed the car is doing as it approaches the light.
• Physical barriers that either fall, or are raised when the light turns amber, (and can be overridden by emergency services.)
• Community members organising themselves to become competent in using a mobile speed camera. Other communities have done this, at Upwell they have Speedwatch.

How about some human adaptation to the problems of unsafe pedestrian crossings? Or will parents wait and see if the State will do something to improve safety? Do they need permission from those in authority before they act to make the roads safer for their own children?

• Re introduce crossing patrols. These need not be supplied by the State, parents can buy hi-vis jackets and take turns protecting the children.
• Lobby for a twenty mile an hour speed limit throughout the townsite, maybe an even lower speed close to schools and crossings.
• Engage fully with the Road Safety Week Campaign and ensure that the message “When a steady green figure shows, check the traffic has stopped then cross with care.”

I’m sure that parents can find their own solutions to creating safer roads if they have the will to do so. 

My own lobbying energy is more directed towards government changing the rules on euthanasia as I am ready for death, but the State will not currently assist in this. Am I going to find a technological solution?