Ah, that pic of the kid brought back a flood of memories, before the dreaded safety nazis put the kybosh on having fun. I was telling my two twenty-something year old sons about how my Grandfather used to drive me and my brother and sisters around in the back of his pickup truck, no seats, no seat belts, no airbags, just jump in and hang on! The expressions of horror on their faces was priceless.......
Sure, people got killed that way, but that's life. I watched a "Crash scene investigators" program on TV last night about a woman in a modern Ford Ka ("econo-car") who was involved in a head on car crash with a couple in their old restored Volkswagen Kombi, she had ABS, seat belt pre-tensioners, crumple zones, collapsible steering column and front and side airbags, but was still killed.
The driver of the old Kombi lost most of his right leg, (which pisses him off as he's an avid restorer and collector of classic British motorcycles, which of course have "Kick start only" and "right side gear change") but he and his wife survived, even though that car had no modern "safety" items. I couldn't help but wonder how far we've really progressed since I used to ride around in my Grandad's old Vauxhall................
