The deaths that produce no outrage.

last updated 8 January 2015

Ireland

David McWilliams

If an Aer Lingus jet were blown out of the sky every year, wouldn’t we do something about it? asked David McWilliams in Dublin’s Sunday Business Post. Wouldn’t we “see all the powers of the state come down on the terrorists”—both to avenge the deaths and to prevent more? Yet every year, nearly 400 people, “the equivalent of a packed jumbo jet,” are killed in car accidents, and we simply yawn. We let maniac speeders keep driving for months after they have failed their driving tests. We re-elect politicians who have been convicted of drunken driving. “We allow huge, deadly craters to be dug and then signaled by a few askew plastic cones,” creating “deathtraps.” And even though young drivers account for far more than their share of accidents, we have no driver education courses in the public schools. Other countries don’t have this crisis because they regulate drivers more stringently and require curfews and learners’ permits for the young. But the Irish government refuses to act because it is “petrified of being accused of presiding over a nanny state.” And so “the carnage will go unchecked.” It’s almost like letting the terrorists win, isn’t it?