Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Professional Drivers

How is it that the one profession that people are allowed to not comply with any regulations are drivers? No I am not referring to racing drivers, I am referring to the paid drivers who shuttle people and goods around our country. Drivers who drive branded vehicles which represent the companies they work for.

I was recently driving behind a shuttle company with a big maximum 100 speed sign on the back and at one point we were doing 160km/h. We drove at an average speed of 140km/h for the 30 odd km that I followed him. Now here comes the crux of the matter. Yes we were both speeding, but he is getting paid to drive and so should be complying with the law as one on a building site would have to comply with health and safety regulations.

A builder would be fined/jailed for failing to comply to safety regulations should someone be injured on a site and yet a professional driver does not face the same when causing an accident and injuring someone.

I believe that paid / professional drivers should be more liable when it comes to failure to comply to regulations i.e. they should be fined 3 times the norm for speeding.

Going back to the fact that I was also speeding (and yes it was wrong), the fundamental difference is I was driving a new, well maintained vehicle which cost twice the price of the bus and had ABS, and all the other acronyms that imply safety as apposed to a bus full of people that has non of the above.

Speeding is against the law no matter what you drive. (Just so we are clear).

Check out one of my earlier blogs on this matter Speed Kills

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