World Health Day

It turns out that RTA's a very major cause of death. In the UK they are the third biggest killer after heart disease and depression [and that latter is sobering enough -most likely to affect young men, too]. It's an interesting indictment of our way of running the world. I wonder what motoring costs would look like if we externalised the costs from the NHS to the motorists? If there is an RTA should the NHS bill the DTI for the repair jobs? [Minus their own road use? -but they have paid for that through the license fee on the ambulances already]. Anyway, the point I'm making is that the road user should be paying for the environmental cost and also the health costs of road use, that way the price of motoring would help to inform decisions more accurately by including an element related to the risks and non-financial costs of the activity.

That's not forgetting the perspective that these deaths are of people precious to God and to families and friends. I'm thinking that there is more room here for building some worship and reflection around this theme. Shame I'm not in a position to do that at the moment. I think I would want to start with a reflection on the preciousness of human life, include the way that the patterns of deaths vary between developed and developing world and the projections of future patterns, I suspect there is a place for penitence for our own misuse of the priviledge of road usage. I rather like the idea of using toy cars for intercessions ... can we work that in? And/or using road signs in some way perhaps to mark out stations? Iyt seems to me that there would be some value in considering the use of testimony or even [in some circumstances and I think that in Sanctuary it would have worked] a time for sharing of experiences of RTA's particularly recognising the feelings around them. -Of course this latter could be linked with the roadsigns idea or even the toy car idea, perhaps.

If I was part of a planning group I think that I would suggest that we started with a splurge-sharing of our own feelings and perspectives on RTA's and see what emerged in terms of having heard it all asking which stories, perspectives etc stood out as potential raw material for common worship ...

Into that mix we need to add the recognition that we may have people present who have been in RTA's either as someone who has caused injury or even death or as someone who has been injured or bereaved. It's easy to understand why the services I have seen advertised in the past that deal with this issue are memorial services for those killed or maimed in RTA's -it's easier to keep that focus clear.