Dangerous Driving?

I know this government likes to style itself as being 'driver friendly', but I didn't think that we would so quickly reach the extreme position where drivers are no longer considered responsible for accidents, and the police instead waste time and resources looking for external causes for road accidents. I'm sorry, but the suggestion that the horrendous fatal pile-up on the M5 over the weekend was the result of smoke from a firework display drifting across the carriageway, is, to be frank, utterly ludicrous. The reality is that any such smoke would have presented far less of a hazard than the existing road conditions, namely fog patches and a wet road surface. The usual cause of such accidents is drivers failing to follow warnings and not reducing speed and increasing distances between vehicles. Even if there was thick smoke drifting across the carriageway, why didn't the drivers involved slow down?

Despite initial reports highlighting the adverse weather, by Saturday afternoon the 'smoke' theory began to turn up on the news reports, with witnesses suddenly 'remembering' that they might have seen smoke at the scene, (no doubt after much prompting from the press). By Sunday the dogs had been released and every report was pointing the finger at the Taunton Rugby Club firework display. So self-righteous was the tone of some reports, that I was amazed we didn't have scenes of reporters chasing down people suspected of being at the party, door-stepping them and demanding: "Do you realise that while you were enjoying yourself, people were dying as a consequence? Your fireworks might have killed innocent people, how do you feel about that? How do you sleep at night, you bastards, eh?" Instead, by Monday, we had the almost as bizarre sight of a senior police officer talking about 'criminal proceedings', and the media launching investigations into the licensing arrangements for firework displays.

Nowhere, in all of this, is there any suggestion that this accident, like most others, might be down to driver error. Because of course, under this government, the motorist can never be at fault. We really shouldn't be surprised, after all, we have a Prime Minister in posh boy Cameron who seems to be in thrall to that other overgrown public schoolboy Jeremy Clarkson - the man who believes that motorists are 'an endangered species'. What a cock. Besides, if this accident is put down to driver error, then the government's insane plans to increase the speed limit could be called into question. So, instead, for now at least, it looks like it is going to be blamed on people with no connection to the accident enjoying themselves. The bastards.