Dear God No
If you wanted a perfect microcosm of the difference between the American and European mind, you could hardly do better than this:
"The road safety community in the UK is united behind
the call for a UN global ministerial conference to give urgently-needed
direction to road injury prevention."
What in God's name could the global community come up with that driving instructors, air bags, and the local highway patrol have not come up with. Wow, some teenagers drive fast and die in car wrecks. What do we do about this (short of refusing to buy your 16 year old a sports car)? Well, gee, I don't know but I'm certain if we got the best bureaucratic minds in the world together we could figure it out over caviar and champagne.
It doesn't get more local than people dieing on your roads. Do we honestly believe that transportation experts from Guatemala have something to offer Great Britain? Or Vice Versa?
And has anybody pondered the idea that most fatal accidents occur because of a) carelessness, b) recklessness and c) impaired abilities due to too much to drink? And sometimes its just dumb luck? Five percent tops could be prevented through some sort of government regulation (with regards to road construction or safety features in cars). Oh sure, we could all make our cars as safe as the average NASCAR vehicle, but there's this little thing called costs that gets in the way. And danger sometimes just isn't a deterrent. Notice how many people still drive motorcycles? A world conference on driving. Is this the moment where the international community jumps the shark?