Safety is no accident.
My dad used to say this around the house at least once a day. Sometimes, more.
And I think it is true. You can never be too careful when it comes to safety. Like those acts of lighting grills or disposing of banana peels. And a million other things.
One of the biggest causes of accidents, now and historically, is the automobile. To remind everyone — on average, there are over 6 million passenger car accidents in the U.S. every year. Road crashes are the leading cause of death in the country, resulting in more than 38,000 people losing their lives each year.
I don’t mean to sound all gloomy, as we definitely need our cars at this point in our lives. Mass public transportation may never happen in the United States.
But here are some other things to remember. You chatty Cathy’s. Driving and speaking on your cellphone increases your chances of getting into a car crash by 400%. Distractions are also a huge cause of accidents.
Over the years, laws have been made in an effort to slow these numbers down. But these collisions happen, even though most of them could have probably been avoided.
Yet, with all of this, the subject I’m thinking of today is kids. Unfortunately. Car accidents are the leading killer of children under the age of 15 in the U.S.
So among those laws are car-seat laws. Every state has them, I think. They require that kids need to be placed in properly installed car seats.
But here is a law for you.
“Funeral coaches” are exempt from the child car-seat law. Yes. Indeed.
On October 15, 2004, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ruled that hearse manufacturers no longer had to install anchors for child-safety seats in their vehicles. I bet a lot of hearse makers were happy to hear that one.
It started a few years earlier. By 1999, many parents were incorrectly installing the seats using only their cars’ seat belts. This resulted in a lot of deaths. So. With that, the agency required all carmakers to install a standardized anchor on every passenger seat in every vehicle they built.
Of course, “every vehicle” means every vehicle. Though it seemed like a dumb idea for funeral wagons, those hearse-builders complied with the rule. Thousands of hearses came off the production line with baby-seat latches installed.
Well, I suppose that cost the hearse makers extra money. The year after the agency issued the rule, one of the largest “funeral coach” manufacturers in the United States put in for an exemption.
They wrote: “Since a funeral coach is a single-purpose vehicle, transporting body and casket,” the petition said, “children do not ride in the front seat.”
They went on to say that most of their riders would rather not be in the hearse, to begin with.
Eventually, the agency gave a pass to the hearse makers on child safety seats. They stated that as long as the casket is secure, they are good to go.
And now we know.
This is just another example of the things that go on in this world undetected by most of us. It is a big spinning ball, and lots of things are spinning on the surface. Even in hearses.
So be safe out there. And don’t forget your helmet.
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The safety of the people shall be the highest law.
— Marcus Tullius Cicero
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The government’s first duty and highest obligation is public safety.
— Arnold Schwarzenegger
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Your own safety is at stake when your neighbor’s wall is ablaze.
— Horace
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Safety lessons. Even in hearses.
