Do we take driving dangers for granted?

It's ironic that, for all the attempts to raise our road safety awareness, it can take a near-miss to realise how we take our own lives in our hands every time we get behind the wheel.

3,172 people died in road traffic accidents in Britain in 2006. Despite this fact, myself and many other motorists feel safe in our cars - protected from the risk of accident by a combination of the latest safety technology and our own presumed invulnerability.

Though I see and hear the effects of road accidents on a near-daily basis in my job, it's all too easy to drive just a little too fast or too close to the car in front.

But a few days ago I had a wake-up call.

Setting out from my house in the dark, the ice had not entirely cleared from my windows as I approached a junction in Mapperley. With nothing coming in either direction I pulled out, only for an unseen cyclist to emerge from my right and be thrown over the bonnet of my car.

The cyclist was fine, though a little shaken. But having failed to spot him - perhaps because of a lapse in attention and the lack of visibility - the impact on me was, I hope, more long-lasting.

After seeing the damage that could be done by a car travelling at low speeds, I'm now taking steps to reduce the risks of any further accidents. Aside from driving a little slower and keeping more distance between myself and other cars, it's a matter of being ready for the unexpected lane changes and corner-cutting that characterise city centre motoring.

This week's report by the World Health Organisation - predicting that road accidents would cause 20m deaths worldwide between 2000 and 2015 - should have been a chilling reminder to motorists of the dangers of driving.

But in reality those who saw it in this weekend's papers would barely have acknowledged it.

Even the regular tales of road accidents and their horrific consequences barely register, happening to other people and not ourselves.

Driving a car is arguably the most dangerous thing we do on any given day. No matter how careful we are, a momentary lapse of concentration could have disastrous consequences. But would I be so careful if the Mapperley cyclist had driven past me 30 seconds earlier?

What do you think? Do Notts motorists drive dangerously?

Posted by Rob Parsons on March 25 2008.