If Just One Life Is Saved...

Hate that phrase, but it comes up again and again nowadays even if those exact words aren't used. An example being this letter to the editor of the Del Norte Triplicate. The writer asks for an ordinance forbidding the throwing of candy from parades:

"Each year I witness near-accidents when children race to pick up candy in the street. Do we wait until there is an accident or do we prevent that from happening? It is not a matter of “if”  this will happen, it is “WHEN.” Not in 2015, please."

I can understand the concern. I don't understand people that seem to worry 24/7 about something bad happening and come up with laws or restrictions to try and stop any chance of it happening. You can always come up with an excuse for another law.

*******

Which brings to mind that proposal made to our Board of Supervisors to reduce the speed limit near schools in the county to ten miles an hour. I bumped into Supervisor Rex Bohn last Friday over in Myrtletown and spoke with him briefly. Before we parted company I asked him to vote No on the 10 mph proposal. He left me with the impression that proposal had already passed.

And he voted for it. He went on to somewhat defend the proposal, saying it wasn't all schools, just a couple in particular. He also said he believed the new speed limit at those schools was 15mph, not 10. I haven't confirmed the specifics yet.

What got me is the rationale he used for explaining his Yes vote. He told me he was leaning against it but someone- it might have been one of the other supes- gave him an argument akin to the old "...if just one life is saved" line: Something along the line of "How are you going to feel if you vote against this and next week some kid gets hit by a car?". That seemed to really settle it for him.

You could use that argument for just about anything. Never mind there's been only two schoolkid vs. vehicle collisions in recent memory, and one of those was the kid's fault. And never mind the other four supes were going to vote for it, anyway. He could have been the reasoned opposition. But, nope, he fell for that cheap line.

That proposal was a solution in search of a problem and the entire board should have realized it. That they passed it (assuming they did) shows very poor judgment on our Board of Supes. You have to wonder what they'll be willing to do next... if just one life can be saved?