Not again...the tragedy in Buffalo

Those frightening scenes from Buffalo, all those lives gone aflame, literally, make me sad and angry. Sad for obvious reasons, but also angry because yet again, another commuter plane goes down, with fatal results.

A Continental Connection plane, from the commuter plane arm of Continental Airlines, made the fatal collision into a home, killing one of its occupants, as well as all on board the plane.

While many tout statistics that air travel is the safest form of travel (which is comparing apples and oranges, if you're comparing air travel with traveling on the road, as airplanes are really for intercontinental travel), they often ignore the seemingly obvious--that a disproportionate amount of the fatal air collisions involve a commuter plane. Many people may have noticed this sad trend because it seems to be celebrities that are often affected by such crashes--Aaliyah, Buddy Holly (whose fans recently celebrated the 30th year of his death by tinker plane), and the list goes on, regrettably.

I'm inclined to agree with P.A.'s comments in today's New York Times regarding the collision:

The airlines should not be permitted to use smaller planes to fill gaps...

The fliers purchased tickets on a major airline and were put on a two propeller plan
in a high wind area to save the airline money...

Buffalo in winter is a known dangerarea [sic] for two propeller plane. This should be illigeal [sic] if it is not.

Not the airline for which people signed on.

Wrong, on every level.

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Thinking of Aaliyah...

Get the Lead Out...

If you need another reason to convince you to slow down while driving, how about so that you don't end up driving into someone's house?

A man's car hit a house at the corner of Wheeler and Alabama Ave., SE, finally perching in the living room, after also hitting a pedestrian. The driver had to be cut out of his vehicle, the pedestrian also was rushed to the hospital, and one of the home's resident's was trapped in the living room by the errant auto for a while.

Just how fast must you be driving to go airborne and land in someone's home? You can bet the driver was zipping along faster than the typical 30 mile per hour speed limit for urban residential areas! In recent years, with increasingly depressing regularity, there seems to be a spate of drivers slamming into buildings, residential and commercial, at least once a month somewhere in the US. I wouldn't doubt that distracted drivers play a large part in this dubious uptick of a trend, but excessive speed would be the main culprit. After all, if you're driving the speed limit, it's hard for your vehicle to go much past the curb, much less fly like the General Lee of the Dukes of Hazzard. Just saying...

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Back to the Future?

According to WUSA9, Virginia Senator John Warner (Republican) has recently written to the Department of Energy (DOE) to ask the Bush administration to support possible congressional efforts to re-establish a national speed limit of 55 miles per hour.

Warner noted that the potential petroleum savings would be greater now than back in 1974, when a national speed limit was first enacted (and remained in effect until 1995).

Sadly but unsurprisingly, a DOE spokeswoman repeated the administration's position that Congress should expand domestic oil production.

W--the American Nero.