With no stereos, timers that stop you after 2 hours until you’ve had a break and a limited top speed of 20 miles per hour. Oh, and completely shielded from all incoming and outgoing radio / mobile phone signals. Well, probably.
According to another bloody study, it’s now dangerous to listen to loud music, or music with a fast beat, in the car. Soothing sounds are better. So maybe all new cars will come with a radio pre-tuned to Radio 3 and the volume barely discernable. Obviously, sending drivers to sleep is safer than pepping them up with some decent tunes.
So, we can’t use our mobiles as that’s dangerous. Despite the fact that a good way to fight fatigue is to talk to someone and we can’t all carry a passenger all the time. Also, I’ve yet to figure out how using a mobile’s more dangerous than talking to someone in the back seat and maintaining eye contact with them for half the time.
We can’t go faster than 70 on a motorway. Despite the fact that the Germans have no such speed limit and a much lower motorway accident rate.
Now, we’re not supposed to listen to loud music (although the number of times the story says it’s a “nuisance to others” tells me they have ulterior motives). Despite the fact that “if music is above 60 beats per minute, listeners experience a faster heart rate and increased blood pressure” tells me that it would improve responsiveness and keep a driver alert.
Well, until they ban it and start sending the police out with radio receivers and decibel meters I’ll happily keep listening to Anthrax on full tilt. After all, the police don’t have anything better to do with their time. Obviously, as they seem to quite happily waste it on their shiny cameras these days. Crime, simply, isn’t an issue any more. Not when they can’t make some cahs out of it anyway.
And they say crime doesn’t pay. Unless you’re the accountant in charge of the speed camera crew. Yes, that old chestnut again. I’ll shut up now.
