Another week, another pointless pronouncement from a public servant idiot from the Ministry of Never Does Anything. Apparently there is to be a law to enforce the wearing of seat-belts by passengers in vans. This is no doubt in response to the public outcry over the sixteen year old girl who punted a van full of university students over a barricade. Everyone in government will smile, clap each other on the back for a job well done; and go back to emptying the coffers.
Not so fast. First of all, this is not yet law and your ministry has no power in institute laws. Secondly, even if the law is passed, it won’t work.
First problem is that very few vans have seat-belts. Maybe the whole idea is to provide the police with a money-making scheme. Stop a van and fine the passengers for not wearing seat-belts. “But this van has no seat-belts!”. “Not my problem, pay up”.
But let’s be positive and pretend that every van has seat-belts (will never happen) and everyone will use them (will never happen). And here you are, whizzing along the elevated expressway when some young fool rams your van up the backside and before you know it, you are over the edge and skydiving. You will have a brief moment to think how lucky you are to be wearing a seat-belt and will therefore survive; and then you die.
The problem is the vans. The van of choice is a Toyota, originally designed for carrying cargo and therefore requiring a rear floor area constructed out of something only slightly stronger than corrugated cardboard. Then they thought it would be a good idea to stick in some windows and seats in the vans and make them people carriers, a.k.a. deathtraps. If you have a substantial accident in a Toyota van you will be propelled forwards until you are hit in the face by the nearest hard object, and then shortly after you will be hit in the arse by your seat which will have decided that it wants to come with you. If you also happen to be wearing a seat-belt; that will come on the journey with you too; because there is nowhere in a van to mount seat-belts securely. You might as well stick them to the floor with chewing gum, which is probably what some operators will do to save on bolts.
I know this because the company I used to work for actually used to take safety seriously, rather than just paying lip-service with useless pronouncements. Having prised open the floor of a Toyota van with a domestic tin opener and declared it lethal; our Health and Safety man deemed Toyota vans unsafe for human consumption; and instead we purchased imported Volksvagen vans at obscene cost; but at least they were designed to carry people and had proper seat belt mounts.
What the wanker from the ministry should have said was that they were proposing a law to ensure all people carriers were adequately designed to mount seats and seat-belts; and once that was implemented there would be a law requiring everyone to wear belts. Of course that will never happen, and even if it did everyone would ignore it, just like they ignore any law that is seen as a minor inconvenience. Like corruption.
Comments 🔗
2011-02-18| Barry saysCouldn’t have put it better myself. So I don’t have to. Thanks. Sometimes living in this country really pisses me off. I really, really, don’t know how it functions, with so many twats in charge. It really boggles the mind how stupid these people are.
2011-02-18| Spike saysBut it does function. Stuff comes down wires (usually), other stuff disappears down pipes and a civilised life can be lived. And it’s not out country so we can just relax and be bemused/amused by it all. And apart from the politicians (who are wankers in every country), the people are charming. Personally I would not want to live anywhere else; I just try and avoid Toyota vans (being in them or hitting them).
2011-02-18| genuinej saysOh so true. What tossers politicians are, especially in the UK where standout candidates of late include Tony Bliar, Gordon cunt Brown, John weeny dick and weeny brain Prescott, Ed Balls Balls, his twat of a wife Yvette Cooper etc, etc, ad nauseam. But we are not alone. e.g, the USA has Barack twat Obama, France some dwarf named Sarkozy and Italy the paedophile Bersculloni. On top of these fuckwits we have the European Parliament and Courts. You should not be allowed to make it up. Perhaps Sadam had the right idea all along.
2011-02-19| Spike saysYeah, that Bersculloni is a twat. However, I do have a sneaking admiration for Berlusconi; if Gordon Brown had had so many women he might still be in power.
2011-02-19| Ben saysJeez you can speak some shit.
Toyota passenger vans started meeting EU/US safety requirements years ago, not long after VW actually. In countires where such standards are required they are sold as fully compliant however is countries like Thailand that does not require the same standards they are no sold as standard and must be oredered.
2011-02-19| Grimlock saysJeez you can miss the point.
2011-02-19| Spike saysAnd the local sharks in Thailand specially order the compliant version at significant extra cost…….?
Of course they bloody don’t. They buy the locally constructed goods vans, which are then converted to carry passengers with no consideration given to safety.
Which was my point; which as Grimlock observes, you missed.
Anyway, what’s it like working for Toyota?
2011-02-19| Pete saysOrdering the proper standard of vehicle doesn’t appear to be the problem here - after all, anyone can do that.
No, what you have to do is oreder them, as they are no sold as standard.