Looking to nature for safer roads

The dragonfly is seen in many parts of the world as a symbol of adaptability and transformation.

I see the dragonfly differently as I sit on my waterfront deck and watch squadrons of them zip, zoom and soar, capturing dozens of mosquitos, midges and other little irritating bugs.
 
I see the dragonfly as control. Control to achieve balance.

Dragonflies are a superb control for mosquitos, which are an annoyance at the least, and a deadly force at most. The world needs mosquitos, but not an overabundance of them, and dragonflies help to make sure that there is not.

On the wing, an adult dragonfly is believed to eat 100 or more mosquitos every day. As larva, they kill even more in the water where mosquitos breed.

That’s the wonder of nature, providing effective control and balance in an effort to avoid catastrophe.

And, that’s something that human society has difficulty with. We just can’t seem to exercise the balance and control needed to keep us all safe and happy.
 
There was yet another heart-tearing example of this last week in Brampton.
Teacher Karolina Ciasullo, 37, and daughters Klara, 6; Lilianna, 4; and Mila, 1; were killed when a sports car smashed into their van in a Brampton-area intersection. The sports car driver, a 20-year-old man, was in hospital in serious condition.

Peel police have held back details of the tragedy, possibly because a police chase might have been involved.

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown has said the sports car operator was a known reckless driver whose driving licence was under suspension. He distributed a video of the same car, and allegedly the same driver, driving dangerously a couple of days earlier.
 
The Brampton tragedy brings to mind the reckless driving killings of three other young children and their grandfather north of Toronto in 2015. Marco Muzzo was drunk and speeding when his vehicle slammed into a van, killing Gary Neville, 65, and his three grandchildren Daniel Neville-Lake, 9; Harrison, 5; and Milly, 2.

Muzzo was sentenced to 10 years in prison, and now is out on day parole.
 
It also brings to mind the pedestrians killed by cars every week, it seems, in Toronto. And, it brings to mind the speeding and dangerous driving many of us see daily on Ontario roads.

If you listen to various Ontario government authorities, Ontario has some of the world’s safest roads. Try telling that to what’s left of the families decimated by reckless drivers.

And, although the number of traffic fatalities in relation to numbers of drivers might be falling, the number of actual deaths is increasing, evidence of more forceful collisions, probably from speed.

Evidence of speeding, racing and reckless driving is before the eyes of anyone who travels the roads.

On Highway 11 between Barrie and Huntsville almost no vehicles, transport trucks included, follow the posted speed limits.
 
Transports are among the worst offenders. Ontario Provincial Police statistics show 7,674 collisions involving transport trucks in 2018, a four-year high. Fifty-five people were killed in those collisions, another 1,142 injured.

Rubber tire marks from racing starts, wheelies and other antics are a familiar sight on many rural roads.

It’s not that police forces are ignoring the situation. The OPP laid just under 7,000 speeding charges during the May holiday weekend.

Citizens need to start shouting into government ears about the need for a more intense police crackdown on our streets and highways.

Whether you believe or disbelieve all the news releases about Ontario having the safest roads, they need to be better, and can be better. Beautiful young families should not be dying because of speeders and reckless drivers.
 
Despite all the dragonfly effort at control, mosquito populations continue to exist. Traffic accidents will continue no matter how hard we try to control them.

But tragedies like the one in Brampton last week are no accidents. They are the direct result of irresponsible actions by drivers unwilling to control themselves.

Our governments, pushed by its citizens, need a bigger and better effort to stop this senseless type of road carnage. If it means more traffic police funding, so be it.

Take a lesson from nature: It’s all about creating a better, safer world through control and balance.