If anyone ever wondered what kind of people the road builders are and how they play the game, well, this pretty much says it all:
Not content to stop at the first sentence, the road builders would like to remind you that if you don't give them everything they ask for, your car might plunge into a river as well.
Stay classy, road builders.
Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association: Statement on Minnesota bridge collapse (8/2/2007)
For more information, contact: Pat Goss, (608) 256-6891
“Our thoughts are with the people of Minnesota as they wrestle with the enormity of yesterday’s tragedy. The failure of the I-35 bridge is a reminder that inspecting, maintaining and upgrading the transportation systems our families use and commerce depends upon requires everyone’s constant commitment.”
Not content to stop at the first sentence, the road builders would like to remind you that if you don't give them everything they ask for, your car might plunge into a river as well.
Stay classy, road builders.
Meanwhile, here is a far more prudent and balanced perspective, courtesy of Newsweek:
Zdenek Bazant, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northwestern University, says he suspects “fatigue” caused the collapse, fatigue simply meaning that repeated loads will weaken structures over time... Other famous bridge collapses due to fatigue are rare, he says, pointing to the last big fatigue failure at the Mianus River Bridge in 1983 in Connecticut and, before that, the Point Pleasant Bridge in West Virginia in 1967. “Now, after 24 years we’ve had probably about 50 people killed,” Bazant says. “Yes, we should invest in our infrastructure, but if we’re going to pour tons of money into something to save lives, we should notice that millions die in car accidents, not bridge accidents.” (emphasis added)
4 comments:
Millions?
Didn't it just get reported that somewhere in the neighborhood of 42,000 people died in car accidents last year?
This is what you call prudent and balanced?
According to the World Health Organization, approximately 1.2 million people died worldwide in car accidents in 2004.
Alternatively, if one looks collectively at a period that covers the same time as the bridge collapses Bazant mentions, his statement is still correct.
And even if we say 43,000 (the number of U.S. road-related fatalities in 2003) and hold that number constant, that's still approximately 1000 times the maximum number of deaths that will have occurred as a result of this accident, and appoximately 5,000 times the number of deaths attributable to U.S. bridge collapses in the last five years.
He certainly could've phrased that better but even as stated it's not incorrect.
Not that it is very important, but it still is symbolic - "our thoughts are with...," but not our "thoughts and prayers...."
The two words used to go together like bread and butter when condolences were offered.
It is a new and empty world with empty thoughts.
All of their prayers are being directed at saving the oil company franchise fee in the budget right now. Perhaps they will have some prayers to spare later.
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