Drownings and the road toll

Over the past week or so we've seen headlines separately related to the magnitude of the holiday road toll, and high number of summer drownings.

To me, it seems that it's human nature to clutch at any variation in the statistics and try to make sense of it. I think there's a lot of randomness in the number of people dying on the roads, but I can understand the police wanting to get people to drive more carefully and avoid mistakes that lead to deadly crashes.

Every life lost on the roads is a tragedy and we should aim to minimise this. But when you look at the statistics over time, travel on the road has become safer. Cars are better manufactured and more safely designed, and our fleet has modernised, though there's still a lot of “old clunkers” on the roads.

But, this year's holiday road toll is at the high end historically, with 17 people losing their lives. I wonder whether being out of lockdown, and people wanting to do a summer road trip, has seen more cars on the roads, and consequently more crashes. And there I go, as others do, trying to rationalise the numbers!

The same applies to drownings at our beaches and rivers, with 14 people sadly drowned - the highest number in 25 years.

Now it's all very well to have some thoughts about the potential factors behind these fatalities, but there are those amongst us who go off the deep end (no pun intended). In the most ridiculous of takes, we have Sue Grey (anti-vax lawyer), who we've mentioned multiple times in the past, now trying to draw a relationship between the COVID vaccines and the drownings and the road toll.

Sue Grey writes: Has anyone looks (sic) at factors that might explain the large number of car and swimming accidents. Are there any novel medical treatments or other factors that might explain this?

So apparently, according to Sue Grey, the COVID vaccine is now offered as an explanation for increased drownings and car crashes. Hmmm… it seems she'll clutch at anything to discredit vaccines.

But, on the other hand, she's also tried to blame the death of a 23-year-old Australian man, who was into powerlifting, on the vaccine. According to Grey, young and healthy people don't die of COVID, so if they do, it was probably the vaccine, not COVID.

Coming this year, she and other anti-vaxxers are launching what they refer to as the “People's Inquiry” into the NZ COVID response:

An inquiry by the people, for the people, to ask and answer the questions that the government, media and big pharma have suppressed, and to make recommendations about an exit strategy and reclaiming democracy

Sarcasm: I'm sure that it will be totally rational and they'll get to the bottom of things, presenting cogent facts for all to see! More likely, they'll have some pre-determined conclusions that they just want to reinforce.

Still, perhaps 2022 will be the year that the NZ Law Society releases a decision about Sue Grey. Their investigation began back in November - one wonders why these things take so long. And then there's the case of the Kaiapoi doctors offering vaccine exemptions along with their weight loss advice. Hopefully we'll hear an outcome of this soon too.