Good evening Stuart,
I have to challenge the assertion by the road safety expert you had on, that road deaths are treated less seriously than deaths in workplaces and that every death in a workplace is vigorously investigated. It really depends on the industry.
In construction, almost every fall becomes headline news and gets investigated by workcover, however in other industries it is different. For example, I’m aware of at least half a dozen deaths of electricians through electrocution in the last few years in Canberra alone, and none of those received media coverage or more than a brief investigation due to the nature of the work. By comparison, road deaths get investigated by teams of police and receive media coverage.
Your guest also said that we should never accept that road deaths are unavoidable. I disagree. Road travel is inherently dangerous and we will inevitably have road deaths, even if computers completely take over the act of driving. We can reduce the likelihood of deaths, but I’m afraid there will always be some deaths on the roads.
Have a great night.
Regards, Samuel Gordon-Stewart Canberra