UK ROAD DEATHS IN 2010-11

    • Car occupants: 883 (up 6%)

    • Pedestrians: 453 (up 12%)

    • Motorcyclists: 362 (down 10%)

    • Cyclists: 107 (down 4%)

Source: Department of Transport

UK ROAD DEATHS BETWEEN 2007 AND 2011

    • 2011: 1,901

    • 2010: 1,850

    • 2009: 2,222

    • 2008: 2,538

    • 2007: 2,946

Source: Department of Transport

An estimated 32,788 people were killed in traffic accidents in 2010, according to the USA's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration .

USA one death per 9,516 inhabitants

UK one death per 34,719 inhabitants

The UK number of new fleet vehicles purchased last year was 973,233, slightly more than the 958,005 cars bought by private users.

In 2009 the average age of the 31,258,197 cars on the road in the UK was seven years. The average age of a scrapped car has fallen 7pc in the last six years to 13.2 years. Vans (light trucks in the USA) last slightly less time on the road, with an average age at scrapping of 12.5 years.

(Jan. 17, 2012) -- The average age of cars and light trucks currently in operation in the U.S. has increased to 10.8 years. Passenger cars showed a modest increase in age since 2010, from 11 years to just 11.1 years at the end of June 2011. Light trucks (including pickups and SUVs) show a more sizeable gain in the same timeframe, from 10.1 years to 10.4 years.

Again something is wrong when you compare population numbers, or even road miles or miles driven. You have too many accidents!!!!!!!!!! Then I guess that as a small basically urban country (85% urban) we have a greater number of visible traffic police and our annual testing of all vehicles for road worthiness means we have fewer bangers on the road

And again on Obamacare - the USA got it wrong. If your insurance industry had been told to get its nose out of the legislation then you could have had something like any of the English, the French or the German systems. They all work well.

Germany is based on a lot of small healthcare insurance companies that own hospitals and pay for GPs (doctor with clinics in the community). They are partly ring-fenced to keep them small. Also the trades unions had a lot to do with setting up little insurance/healthcare schemes.

France is state run but the local doctors, who are still independent, get paid so much a visit. It is the most efficient scheme in Europe. It works and does not have any waiting list for surgery. It also takes in foreign nationals, by contract with their country, as certain areas are under employed!

In the UK it is the National Health Service which owns most hospitals, employs the staff and has area based Healthcare Trusts to employ, pay, operate and control the Ambulance service, car and bike based paramedics and doctors (Immediate response teams), GPs and dentists; and what they get paid based on a national set of rates. You can be a private patient, and you can even be private and still use the NHS. It works but is somewhat bureaucratic and we are trying to get the number of managers down, with some success. It is paid out of the national insurance and social welfare taxes everyone of working age has to pay to the government.

Going back to guns, I still think you could take all military derived semi and fully automatic weapons out of circulation, and in reality, many of the hand guns as well. I would remove all self loading rifles and only allow bolt action hunting rifles. I would also ban high capacity magazines. anything over say 5 shells - (I am sure you would get stories that it was the sixth shell that stopped the charging moose or elk, but that is just bad shooting). All guns should be licensed and kept in gun safes bolted into a strong-point in the house. That would change the gun culture sufficiently and would make the mass killing tragedies much less likely. You can never stop people all together, but you can reduce risk considerably. Start with licencing, it would certainly change the perceptions, and it might identify a lot of crazy nutters.

David M. Adam, Jr.

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