Clergy to bless the roads in effort to cut road deaths

kylith · 23-03-2015 02:59PM

Renata Wooden Fruit wrote: »

No it's not. This is a road safety campaign.

How is it a road safety campaign? Maybe it might raise awareness for a day or two, but I see no quotes from priests urging people to drive more carefully, slowly, or awarely, nor have I ever. Nor have I ever heard a priest talk about road safety in his sermon, or seen anti-speeding advertisements sponsored by the RCC. This is almost as little as can humanly be done while still appearing to do something. People are laughing at this rather than considering how they might alter their behaviour to lower road deaths.

The only reason it's even raising awareness is because it's unusual and quaint enough to get into the paper, if it didn't it'd be totally unnoticed.

eviltwin · 23-03-2015 03:00PM

What do religious types think this blessing will actually do? Do they really think the road is somehow safer? It seems barmy.

23-03-2015 03:01PM

RomanKnows wrote: »

Absolutely. It's harmless as you say. May even give some comfort to those who have lost friends or family due to traffic accidents.
Won't stop some supposedly enlightened neckbeards from snorting at it with all the hubris and pride of a True Dawkinian. They are rarely as enlightened about the fact the same neckbeard is an enormous barrier to having sex with another adult human.

Saying it might comfort people is not the same argument as, it will have an effect on road deaths, They are two completely different issues.

Chijj · 23-03-2015 03:03PM

It's a purely symbolic gesture, I think some people on here would be happier with a story about a priest caught for sexual abuse.......pathetic really.

whisky_galore · 23-03-2015 03:03PM

alchemist33 wrote: »

Won't the holy water just make the roads slippier???

No, but a regional road can get upgraded to motorway if it's blessed.

ScumLord · 23-03-2015 03:03PM

Seems like a typical response in Ireland, "there's too many deaths on the road, lets bless the road".

"shouldn't we look into the actual cause of all the accidents?"

"they're going too fast, tell them to slow down"

I think Irelands blanket assumption that going slow means you're going safe is a huge fallacy. I see people meandering along the roads at obscenely slow speeds, looking out the window at the fields beside them or entrenched in a face to face conversation with their passenger.

Proper driving instruction would be much more helpful. Better roads would be another improvement. Some of the country roads are downright dangerous they're so uneven and full of potholes. Whenever the council do work they seem to pay no heed to the fact if they don't repair the road properly it will sink. The roads around here have sunken squares all over them where they've dug up a small bit of road and just thrown some tar and chippings into the hole and patted it down with a shovel.

Going slow doesn't not counteract dangerous drivers, if anything it makes them more prone to mistakes because they seem to think they can do no wrong at 70kph.

elefant · 23-03-2015 03:03PM

whiskeyman wrote: »

I'm incensed by this...

There was a spider in the bath last night.

23-03-2015 03:07PM

We also live a free country thank god

That mean I can go out in to my garden and do a dance to call down the great water spirit if that is what I believe In and that not going to harm any one else.

Neyite · 23-03-2015 03:09PM

I find it amusing. A bit of PR for the RCC I suppose.

Areyouwell · 23-03-2015 03:09PM

Focusing attention on a very serious issue like this can only be a good thing imo.

4zn76tysfajdxp · 23-03-2015 03:14PM

kylith wrote: »

How is it a road safety campaign? Maybe it might raise awareness for a day or two, but I see no quotes from priests urging people to drive more carefully, slowly, or awarely, nor have I ever. Nor have I ever heard a priest talk about road safety in his sermon, or seen anti-speeding advertisements sponsored by the RCC. This is almost as little as can humanly be done while still appearing to do something. People are laughing at this rather than considering how they might alter their behaviour to lower road deaths.

The only reason it's even raising awareness is because it's unusual and quaint enough to get into the paper, if it didn't it'd be totally unnoticed.

Is it the church's responsibility to educate people on road safety now? They're going out of their way to perform some ceremony to promote road safety and people are whinging because they're not doing it the right way. Unbelievable, really.

The Backwards Man · 23-03-2015 03:14PM

Won't do any good, but I'm struggling to see how it will do any harm either.

Nothing like road safety to bring out the 'I know better than you' in people.

kylith · 23-03-2015 03:16PM

mariaalice wrote: »

We also live a free country thank god That mean I can go out in to my garden and do a dance to call down the great water spirit if that is what I believe In and that not going to harm any one else.

Yep. And anyone else has the right to point and laugh while you do so.

kylith · 23-03-2015 03:26PM

Renata Wooden Fruit wrote: »

Is it the church's responsibility to educate people on road safety now? They're going out of their way to perform some ceremony to promote road safety and people are whinging because they're not doing it the right way. Unbelievable, really.

Well, if their taking it upon themselves to bless the roads, hoping it'll magically reduce deaths, I wouldn't have thought that spending 5 minutes at the pulpit telling people that orange lights mean 'stop' and to take it easy on bends would be beyond the realms of possibility.

Muahahaha · 23-03-2015 03:27PM

Renata Wooden Fruit wrote: »

Fairly harmless gesture really, even if it is a waste of time. The internet atheists in here really don't need to go into attack mode every time anything to do with religion is brought up.

I agree its harmless and if priests want to bless the roads then they're free to do so. However this part worries me

"The Blessing of the Roads Ceremony takes places in parts of Australia each year to raise local awareness of road safety, and we are bringing it to Mayo this year," said Noel Gibbons, road safety officer with Mayo County Council.

Mayo has a pretty high rate of road fatalities, most likely in part because the roads in Mayo are poorly surfaced and engineered. I would much prefer that the road safety officer of Mayo County Council is addressing those issues rather than getting involved in saying prayers in the hope they're solved. Road deaths in Mayo almost DOUBLED last year.

THE Road Safety Officer with Mayo County Council has said ‘alarm bells are ringing’ after road deaths in the county almost doubled in the last year.
The year 2014 was an ‘annus horribilis’ for road safety campaigners in Mayo, with the tragic death of Kilmaine pensioner Michael Paul Murphy bringing the number of deaths on Mayo’s roads to eleven. The figure is shocking when compared to the previous year, when six people died on the county’s roads.
The increase in road deaths is a significant step in the wrong direction for road safety campaigners who had seen a significant drop in deaths over the last number of years. In 2012, there were seven deaths on the road and it fell further in 2013 when six people lost their lives. This year’s figures match the number of deaths for 2011 while eight died in 2010.
Noel Gibbons, Mayo County Council’s Road Safety Officer said the increase in deaths was disappointing.
“It is a huge increase on last year, and it is disheartening to see the figures rise again,” he told The Mayo News. “Eleven deaths is a lot, and the alarm bells are ringing for us now, because it was not expected. We definitely hoped for a further decrease at the start of the year. We will have to break down the figures and analyse [where the deaths occurred] and we will have to work to decrease that number for next year.”

http://www.mayonews.ie/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=21203:road-deaths-almost-double-in-mayo&catid=23:news&Itemid=46

ScumLord · 23-03-2015 03:29PM

mariaalice wrote: »

We also live a free country thank god That mean I can go out in to my garden and do a dance to call down the great water spirit

You must have a very active church. Could ye stop please.

23-03-2015 03:32PM

ScumLord wrote: »

You must have a very active church. Could ye stop please.

This was last year during the heat wave and my roses were wilting I had to do something.

Macavity. · 23-03-2015 03:32PM

Renata Wooden Fruit wrote: »

Fairly harmless gesture really, even if it is a waste of time. The internet atheists in here really don't need to go into attack mode every time anything to do with religion is brought up.

Not attacking, it's just so utterly laughable and bizarre.

23-03-2015 03:35PM

I do think it should have been a ceremony of all faiths and none, and maybe it should have been focused on all using there collective energies and abilities to reduce road deaths.

Dog of Tears · 23-03-2015 03:37PM

Ridiculous idea.

Engineering and Driver Behaviour are the key facets of road safety and is where those charged with promoting road safety in the Local Authorities should be focussing their attention.

This pathetic attempt from the god-botherers to try to put themselves front and centre of an issue they have nothing to do with, is retarded.

AudreyHepburn · 23-03-2015 03:42PM

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

THIS is not April 1st is it?? Cause I was under the impression it was March 23rd (2015).

People of a certain vintage might see this as a throwback to the 1950's or something.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/republic-of-ireland/clergy-will-bless-irelands-roads-in-bid-to-end-carnage-31086199.html

Ever watch Father Ted and think actually it might not be that far from the truth?:pac:

If it draws attention to road safety then what's the problem.

Just because religion is involved doesn't mean there's some sinister ulterior motive involved or that it's all balderdash.

Shenshen · 23-03-2015 03:43PM

ScumLord wrote: »

Seems like a typical response in Ireland, "there's too many deaths on the road, lets bless the road".

"shouldn't we look into the actual cause of all the accidents?"

"they're going too fast, tell them to slow down"

I think Irelands blanket assumption that going slow means you're going safe is a huge fallacy. I see people meandering along the roads at obscenely slow speeds, looking out the window at the fields beside them or entrenched in a face to face conversation with their passenger.

Proper driving instruction would be much more helpful. Better roads would be another improvement. Some of the country roads are downright dangerous they're so uneven and full of potholes. Whenever the council do work they seem to pay no heed to the fact if they don't repair the road properly it will sink. The roads around here have sunken squares all over them where they've dug up a small bit of road and just thrown some tar and chippings into the hole and patted it down with a shovel.

Going slow doesn't not counteract dangerous drivers, if anything it makes them more prone to mistakes because they seem to think they can do no wrong at 70kph.

I think you're right, a lot of people misunderstand what speed limits are for.
They are not there to prevent accidents.
They are there to try and make sure that when accidents happen, the effects will be as minimal as possible.

Take the potholes, as a simple example : You hit one doing 60kph, and it will give you a decent bump. You hit one at 100kph and it might dent your wheel, break your axle, what have you.
That's why the narrower the road, the lower the spped limit tends to be lower (in sane places) - frontal crashes are more likely as people will not necessarily entirely stick to their side of the road, so to try and minimise the consequences the limits need to be lower than on wider roads where it'll be easier for the other driver to avoid a collision.

In short, dangerous drivers will drive dangerously, no matter the speed. They are just less likely to kill you at 50kph than they are at 100kph.

mackerski · 23-03-2015 03:48PM

whisky_galore wrote: »

No, but a regional road can get upgraded to motorway if it's blessed.

"Your Grace, will it still be a class 2 dual carriageway after they bless it?"

jimgoose · 23-03-2015 03:49PM

Well OK, right, but in all seriousness - is there anything to be said for saying another mass??

Kermit.de.frog · 23-03-2015 03:52PM

AudreyHepburn wrote: »

If it draws attention to road safety then what's the problem.

The problem is not the church, it's more optics as another poster mentioned. You must admit that this would not look out of place in an episode of Father Ted.

ScumLord · 23-03-2015 03:57PM

Shenshen wrote: »

Take the potholes, as a simple example : You hit one doing 60kph, and it will give you a decent bump. You hit one at 100kph and it might dent your wheel, break your axle, what have you.

It's not as dangerous as you'd think in a modern front wheel drive car, I've hit a pothole and a rock from a collapsed stone wall at 100+. Both times it busted the wheel but the car was very controllable and it was easy to bring the car to a stop. The tyre and wheel took all the force. That's not to say you can go hitting potholes without a care, it could go wrong but it's more likely to just put you out the price of a wheel and tyre.

I've got a real bee in my bonnet about slow drivers. I think they cause bad driving behaviour as people try to make up lost time. I live in a small town and regularly I see a slow driver enter town with 10 or more cars in toe causing a mini traffic jam in the town while everyone has to wait for that presession to pass by. You just know that there's going to be a host of overtaking once they get to the other side of town. The people over taking will take extra risks to get ahead of the roadblock.

mass_debater · 23-03-2015 04:01PM

Are we living in an episode of Father Ted, first we get "Careful Now" road signs, now we're blessing them. You couldn't make this sh1t up.

jimgoose · 23-03-2015 04:03PM

ScumLord wrote: »

...I've got a real bee in my bonnet about slow drivers...

The one thing that makes me wish I had a couple of .50-cals fitted to the car is these people being "safe" by going down ramps and merging at 40mph. Gaaaaahhhh!!! :pac:

dr.fuzzenstein · 23-03-2015 04:26PM

ScumLord wrote: »

I've got a real bee in my bonnet about slow drivers. I think they cause bad driving behaviour as people try to make up lost time. I live in a small town and regularly I see a slow driver enter town with 10 or more cars in toe causing a mini traffic jam in the town while everyone has to wait for that presession to pass by. You just know that there's going to be a host of overtaking once they get to the other side of town. The people over taking will take extra risks to get ahead of the roadblock.

Oh, the "safe" drivers! Got their driving license out of a box of Rice Crispies, their glasses date back to the 80's, extra set of eyebrows on their cheeks, on 27 different kinds of tranquilizers and anti-depressants, believe that driving is their God-Given-Right and they are "Entitled To Be On The Road", drive everywhere at 60 km/h, no matter if it's a motorway, main road or town center, will keep out as far as possible to stop anyone overtaking them because they need to enforce the rules of the road as THEY see them, fond of pulling out 10 meters ahead of you as you approach at 100 km/h because in their opinion you're driving too fast (Yes, this has happened!) and will move out to drive you into the ditch if you do have the nerve to overtake them, then follow you flashing and beeping for several km.

Oh yes. Those are the RSA poster boys. Slow=safe and that's all there is to it!:rolleyes: They will all get a medal from Saint Gaybo.

Adamantium · 23-03-2015 05:01PM

If a priests blessing is so ineffective, why did so many of ye get bothered to be married in a church?

Cognitive dissonance at its finest.

Clergy to bless the roads in effort to cut road deaths

Comments