Being right isn't always a good thing
By Jeffrey Fazio
DriveTime Columnist
My
column in the Jan. 29 edition of Drive Time brought attention
to the deaths that happen on the roadways in Berks County. It was
ominously titled, "Who will perish in Berks next?"
At
the time of that column, three people had already died on Berks County
roadways this year. I had suggested, based on statistical evidence,
that at least 33 more people would pass away on the roads of
Berks by Dec. 31.
It
was not one of those times in life that I wanted to be right, but
unfortunately I was. Mathematical probabilities in this situation are
seemingly as inescapable as the tragic accidents that they represent.
On
the evening of Sept. 26, we suffered our 36th loss of life on county
roads this year. The fateful number that I had predicted, not
surprisingly, was reached.
That
weekend, when I read the story of this tragedy on
www.readingeagle.com,
I was struck by many unusual coincidences to my life in that story.
The rational side of my mind knows that the fluke associations I found
inside of that story are just examples of the strange randomness of
life, but these personalized facets suddenly made the story very eerie
to my emotional side.
The
first thing that jumped immediately out at me was that the victim in
the story shares the same last name as my girlfriend. There’s just
something extra attention-grabbing when someone in a news story shares
your surname or the name of someone close to you. It just makes an
immediate connection on some level like hearing the name of your
hometown when you are several states away. The word(s) just seem more
vivid because of their familiarity.
Secondly,
although the driver perished on a Berks County road, he was a resident
of Schuylkill County. Just over 18 months ago, my girlfriend and I
moved to Schuylkill County. Again, just a meaningless coincidence, but
yet something I easily personalized.
This
particular accident happened on a route that my girlfriend and I
traverse at least once every day, if not two or three times. Of all
the places for the 36th fatal accident to occur, what were the chances
it would happen on the one road that I am forced to drive day in and
day out?
More
bizarre than all of that, this accident took place on the same road,
and just over a mile away from a location I noted in the previous
column of seeing a potential deadly crash happening. In the other
column I referenced a few locations that I had recently witnessed
people driving in a fashion that could have cost them their lives. It
just happened to be that one of those spots is very close to this
accident.
If
we could have stopped at 36 fatalities in accidents it would have tied
the lowest number of fatalities on our roadways since these records
have been kept. Unfortunately, life and probabilities would not have
it. As of this writing we have lost one more and the count is holding
its breath at 37.
After
my first column on this subject was published, I received a lot of
correspondence from people that indicated that they shared it with
their friends and family. I can’t help but wonder if any of the 34
people that have perished since that first column ran happened to have
read it. More importantly, I wonder how many people drove safer this
year, even if just a little bit, after reading it.
On
the positive side, we are way ahead of last year. In the early part of
October 2005, we had recorded 56 fatalities in vehicle accidents in
the county. It seems to me that 20 people around the county should
really be enjoying their health this Sunday morning.
If
we all do our best to drive a little safer in the next 2 1/2
months, maybe, just maybe, we can strive for the second-lowest record
of roadway deaths. Here’s to hoping everyone in the county gets to
enjoy the coming new year.
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