Have we learned nothing from the death of Princess Diana ten years ago tomorrow?
If she could, what would she say to her children, to our children, to all of us? The answer — even if she could say it from beyond this life — would go unpublished because it's not sensational and it's tragically common. She'd say, "Tell my children to buckle up: Dodi and I would have lived in the back seat just as Trevor lived in the front seat." An unspoken lesson because we'd rather talk of paparazzi or Paris parties than speak of safety belts. There's just no sizzle, no sales in it, and we're unwilling to let Diana die any differently than we let her live, as a satisfaction for our celebrity appetite. And so the quiet horror of millions killed and maimed by traffic accidents goes on and on, averaging more than 3,500 deaths a month in America alone.
Anymore we're numbed by the horror and no longer hear traffic safety chants like "Buckle up" or "Don't drink and drive."
But there's another lesson in the traffic death of Diana. It lays dormant deep below our public conversation. So deep, in fact, that when you hear it you may not grasp what you're hearing. And it's likely that some among us would rather keep this from our conversation, and so important that future generations will shake their heads, possibly even cry, as they judge us harshly for not acting on it. Here it is.
For decades now, we could have been making cars — including sleek Mercedes for carrying princesses — that can't hit anything.
Well over a decade ago, none other than the U.S. Department of Transportation demonstrated the technology at high speeds on busy Interstate highways. It's not expensive technology given the life-saving benefit to William, Harry and millions more who would not lose loved ones to traffic "accidents".
