Tuesday,
July 24, 2007
The
ANNOTICO Report
The
Pope, the Prime Minister, and the EU among others are attempting to curb
Italians adventurous Survival of the Fittest attitude driving styles.
The influential
Catholic Church decries "collective madness" on the roads and Pope
Benedict has issued "10 Commandments" for motorists, saying cars
"tend to bring out the 'primitive' side of human beings."
Prime Minister
Romano Prodi, unusual for preferring bicycles even
though the red Ferrari is the ultimate Italian status symbol, called for a
"major moral and civic shake-up" regarding
The EU has
demanded member nations halve the number of accidents by 2010.
Reuters
By Stephen Brown
Monday July 23, 2007
In the country
with world's second highest density of car ownership, traffic accidents are
depressingly common on roads clogged with irascible drivers who disdain traffic
rules, park anarchically and treat pedestrians like moving targets.
But reports of [pedestrians]
being mowed down by drunk drivers -- and not least the president's wife who was
knocked over on a pedestrian crossing outside the palace -- have prompted
Italian politicians to react.
Prime Minister
Romano Prodi, unusual for preferring bicycles even
though the red Ferrari is the ultimate Italian status symbol, called for a
"major moral and civic shake-up" regarding
The influential
Catholic Church decries "collective madness" on the roads and Pope
Benedict has issued "10 Commandments" for motorists, saying cars
"tend to bring out the 'primitive' side of human beings."
That certainly
seems to be the case in
Pavements provide
scant refuge, with cars parking on them and zooming mopeds using them as
short-cuts. Zebra crossings at traffic lights serve as starting grids for
impatiently revving scooters and motorbikes.
"In nearly
60 years of life I've never seen a driver fined for not respecting the
lines," wrote Il Manifesto newspaper's Marco d'Eramo
in a column. "Once, hit by a car on a crossing, I was told off by a
policeman who said 'you should be more careful'."
D'Eramo said the Italian capital
boasts 2.4 million cars for 2.5 million inhabitants -- and 8.47 pedestrians
killed or hurt per 1,000 people versus 0.85 in
THE LAWLESS ROADS
Applying make-up
or talking by mobile phone while driving is routine.....Lobby groups like
"Safe Children" lament that only one in five Italians wears a seat
belt, while children often sit in the back or front with no belt, let alone a
car seat, and sometimes on the lap of an adult at the wheel.
This adds up to
8,000 deaths a year in road accidents plus 170,000 people put in hospital and
600,000 needing first aid, according to health ministry estimates. Comparing
That will be
difficult in a place where the death-defying disdain for things like speed
limits prompts
But faced with
public outcry, and incidents like attempts to lynch a Mercedes driver who
knocked over a couple on a moped in Rome, killing one of them, ministers are
vying with each other to propose draconian additions to a draft law on road
safety.
Suggestions
include raising the charge for drunk drivers who kill to murder from
manslaughter, confiscating their vehicles, banning alcohol at motorway cafes
and warning against the dangers of drink-driving on the labels of liquor bottles.
"This is a
national emergency," said Transport Minister Alessandro Bianchi, demanding
"more severe punishments and obligatory arrest."
"MURDEROUS
CITY"
The bill awaiting
Senate approval will ban under-fives from riding pillion on mopeds, now a
common sight, reduce the speed limit for young drivers and crack down on those
using phones, doing U-turns on motorways or ignoring one-way signs.
But experts doubt
new paperwork in itself will help unless laws are applied more rigorously by
more visible police patrols.
They also fear
interest may flag after the annual season for carnage in summer, when
holidaying inebriated teenagers leaving nightclubs become victims and
perpetrators.
"Road safety
is not a summer problem nor just about the Saturday night carnage," said
the Italian Automobile Club (ACI). "People driving on Italian roads must
have the certainty that if they break the rules, they will be stopped and
punished."
While praising a
police campaign to double the number of alcohol tests on drivers to a million
in 2007, ACI said
Meanwhile,
wilting bunches of flowers continue to appear on street corners hit by tragedy,
sometimes accompanied by a note like the one in southern
http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type
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