It's an interesting way of thinking. How far do you take it?

I think it's relatively common to believe that weapon manufacturers are blameless and it's the owners that should keep them under lock and key.

Would you go so far as to say individual consumers are responsible for climate change because we use oil products?

If a drug company pushed doctors to prescribe more oxy, do they bear any responsibility for an increase in addiction rates?

I'm not saying I have the answers here, it just seems interesting to see where it applies.

Driving in particular is different...and as I teach my wife to drive I realize how stressful and compute intensive it is. Slow down if there's cars on the side of the road, a kid will dart out. Keep an eye on what's around and behind you in case you need to swerve, etc etc. It's hard. But the fact is, if you're moving forward and hit something, it's your fault. You either weren't paying attention well enough, or you have serious tunnel vision. Either of which are grounds for retraining in my eyes.

The truth is, and most drivers in learning would probably agree, is that we really shouldn't be driving faster than 25 MPH. Even on protected highways most people drive far faster than they should and only get by because nothing went wrong.

Wait, so you dont enjoy 80+ MPH on the interstate? Like in Texas/Oklahoma/Kansas- Flat roads in the middle of nowhere with barriers on all sides?

I love going fast- In the city or in neighborhoods/parking lots with little ones 25mph is too fast- I generally idle through those areas or go about 20. On city streets 40-45mph is comfortable where I am....Much of how safe I feel going is actually up to good civil engineering. 'Road Diets' are all about mixed use and slowing down the speed delta with cars, bikes and peds sharing the same area. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_diet

I love going fast- with technologies like forward collision radar systems and lane assist technologies we are hacking the human condition to augment our abilities. Cars are getting safer as we go even faster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_vehicle_fatality_rate_in...

I disagree with your statement that we should not go over 25. But I am also willing to be that I drive through more nothingland than you do each day. Going over 25 in a crowded city is not the same as a highway in BFE. Am I accurate there?

For some of us, Driving is a hobby and cars are very fun. I love the hell out of my cars.

TBH, the more I drive, the more I realize that our low advertised risk appetite is incompatible with the high actual risk appetite; this is the reason autonomous driving is in trouble, as we're asking the impossible: "drive as quickly as human drivers, but without the high risk profile inherent in their behavior."

And parents not keeping an eye on their very small children.

You can keep an eye on them, and those children will still take off full speed charging headlong to their deaths.

In the relatively recent path they just died and families had lots more children to make up for the loss. Now we have far fewer children and we are expected to watch then 24/7 without a lapse in observation or concentration.

Leashes are a thing for sufficiently small children. They look like backpacks or monkeys.

Absolutely blind and uphill alleyways are a thing I will always panic about while trying to drive out of.

Ah, yes, the call of the void is very real, and I do agree that children learn to go towards very dangerous things in astonishing speeds, but I disagree that they require constant undivided attention. Situational and location awareness really helps.

Always painful to see adults participate in victim blaming ...

Please, think of the children. They are the real victims here.