[Politech] Canadian safetycrats test anti-speeding devices that may, in some cases, kill people [priv]

From: Declan McCullagh (declan@private)
Date: Tue Nov 29 2005 - 07:54:34 PST


[What a bizarre result. I always thought the purpose of having a 
government was to protect our rights by keeping our person and property 
safe from miscreants. Now it turns out that government officials make us 
labor half the year just to pay their salaries (Ontario's tax freedom 
day is close to July 1) and use the money expropriated from us to invent 
new ways to prevent us from making use of our property (in this case, 
our cars) as we see fit. Delightful! --Declan]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Accelerating out of danger impossible/illegal?
Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2005 00:04:19 -0800
From: Stephen Cobb, CISSP <scobb@private>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan@private>
References: <438BAD28.2050803@private>

Declan

According to the Globe & Mail, "Transport Canada is road-testing
cutting-edge devices that use global positioning satellite technology and a
digital speed-limit map to know when a driver is speeding, and to try to
make them stop. When a driver hits a certain percentage above the posted
speed limit, the device kicks in and makes it difficult to press the
accelerator."

http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20051128/SMARTCARS28/TPTechnology/

The first thought that came to mind when I read this was the way that
pressing the accelerator saved my butt a few weeks ago when a driver ran a
stop light and nearly t-boned me. I chose to put the pedal to the metal to
avoid disaster because the road ahead was clear and I braking less likely
to keep me from being hit. Now imagine the government preventing me from
doing that, or rushing my wife to the hospital in an emergency, or
out-running rising flood waters, and so on and so forth. Hopefully
legitimate uses of the accelerator will be compiled to convince brain-dead
safety-niks that this idea is just plain dumb.

Stephen

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