‘Saving lives’ plans are fine, but common senseis needed

By Medicine Hat News Opinon on February 16, 2018.

A political decision has taxi drivers digging in their heels in Strathmore and so they should.

A new bylaw requires taxi drivers to undergo first aid training. The rationale of the town council is that schools and many companies require someone with first aid training on staff and so why not have taxi drivers do the same?

“We felt, because the taxi drivers are also in their workplace with their customers, that having basic first aid would be one more thing to ensure that our residents are safely transported in and around town,” Mayor Pat Fule is quoted as a saying.

Strathmore is not a large town and if a passenger in a taxi has a medical issue it would seem logical for the driver to keep going and take the person to a hospital/medical facility as quickly and safely as possible. What would be the point of stopping the vehicle, providing first aid and waiting for 911 to respond with an ambulance?

There does not appear to be any history of passengers routinely taking ill in a taxi and that it would save lives to have cab drivers provide medical attention.

Perhaps the phrase the mayor used is a clue here in the decision: “… having basic first aid would be one more thing to ensure that our residents are safely transported…”

One more thing to save lives seems to be a mantra in our culture whether it is feasible and appropriate or not.

There are hundreds of thousands of things we could all do that would save lives.

Reducing the speed limit to 20 km/h would save lives, in fact only allowing pedestrians and no vehicles would save more lives. Having every human being take first aid training could potentially save lives as long as we all practised and did refresher courses every year. Would such a regulation make a significant impact, though, for the cost and effort that would be required? Probably not.

If we all wore face masks and gloves we could cut down on the number of people getting ill and some from dying. If we banned children from riding bicycles we’d cut down on injuries and maybe save a few lives too.

Who comes up with these ideas? They are probably proposed with the best of intentions and then nobody questions the appropriateness of the suggestion. When it is presented as an opportunity to “save lives” nobody has the courage to challenge that and it simply shuts up debate.

That a new idea could potentially save a life is no reason to adopt it. It has to be reasonable and save enough lives for the effort and regulation to be worthwhile.

What we need is more common sense.

(Gillian Slade is a News reporter. To comment on this and other editorials, go to https://www.medicinehatnews.com/opinions, email her at gslade@medicinehatnews.com or call her at 403-528-8635.)