Government and Ethics: Prevention of Suicide and Unintentional Deaths - Assignment Example

Government and ethics Ethics: Prevention of Suicide and Unintentional deaths Just about 750,000 Americans are on theverge of commit suicides due to organizational meltdown. every year. termination deaths result from jumping of victims from raised surfaces such as tall buildings and raised bridges (Golden Bridge, Coronado Bridge and Sunshine Skyway Bridge are the most notable scenes where these cases occur). Suicide cases also result from pedestrians lying on the runway before fast moving vehicles. In other cases, drivers go as far as plunging their vehicles through the guard rail to water below. Although most of these incidents may be classified as unintentional, they in turn could trigger suicidal incidences. For instance, upon discovering that they have caused an accident which has resulted to lose of lives, drivers may opt to commit road suicide. Such actions pose a potential risk to pedestrians and motorists. This term paper answers the questions associated to this case. Answer to Question 1 In order to establish whether there is anything the engineers could do to alleviate suicide cases and unintentional deaths, the nature of the suicide and accident incidences are the focal considerations; that is; in terms of what the causes of the suicides and accidents are as well as, what the facilitative scenes to the cases are. Additionally, any faults in engineering designs as well as the underpinned judgment, to support the design, are imperative considerations. Most of the suicide cases occur at road bridges: Golden Bridge (San Francisco), Coronado Bridge (San Diego) and Sunshine Skyway Bridge (Florida) are the most notable scenes of suicidal cases. Two categories of incidents are prevalent; drivers either plunging their cars into rivers or pedestrians plunging into the river. There are also reported cases where victims jump from skyscrapers and tall buildings. Perhaps engineers can curb these cases by coming up with suicide and accident-curbing designs as well as adopting them. For instance, they can built raised sideway bridge-wall to encumber victims from going over and then plunge into the water below. To cut back on the cases where drivers plunge their cars into rivers, engineers must construct strong sideway walls and rails to confine drivers within the run-ways or highway. In order to curb unintentional deaths, engineers should underpin high quality roads with diminutive bends or meanderings along with apt road banking. This assertion puts in mind the fact that straight runways reduce unintentional road crushes as compared to undulating highways. Conceivably, most road suicides either involve single vehicle crashes, single-occupancy vehicle crashes or vehicles notably; single occupancy crashing with heavily loaded trucks. Arguably, most victims fall amid the ages 25 years and 34 year (Routley 2). Besides, 25% of suicidal cases involve victims who had at some point attempted committing suicide. In most cases, close to half the statistics befall victims with intricate psychological turnabouts often mental disturbance. Farther more, most of the single-vehicle occupancy crushes are caused by people reported as either being drunk or having been drunk recently (Routley 2). Thus, death cases cannot principally be attributed to faulty engineering designs. There is correlation between death risks and age, medical condition, alcoholism and gender. These have no relationship with engineering designs. In order to control suicide cases where people jump from the top of buildings, engineers may come up with building designs that are enclosed so that they offer no loop-hole for suicide victims. This may involve enclosing of windows and balcony using metal rails. However, such a move compromises the building suitability during emergencies; notably building fires. Besides, given the option of choosing amid the conventional designs and the moderated building designs, it is intricate to identify persons willing to take the moderated ones since suicide is unpredictable. Conceivably, suicides may be stress induced or accidental. Engineers could put up more efforts to control accidental deaths than suicidal cases. Human beings are in charge of their lives. It is not possible to monitor them and ascertain their intent; it is not easy to tell and predict who, where and when victims would commit suicide. It is therefore not entirely the engineers’ moral responsibility to prevent accidental deaths and suicides. Instead, it may just be more of a scientific matter of managing and controlling rapid traffic flow on the roads besides the application of other approaches. Answer to Question 2 To aptly address this question, it is essential to first consider the various suicide pre-emptive measures as well as, the devices and designs put in place to curb them. Suicides are triggered by what may be perceived as excruciating human conditions. Suicide cases are associated with taking of poisonous substances, intolerable psychological environments, alcoholism, and problems arising from pecuniary disabilities as well as interpersonal disagreements, among others. Whereas alcoholism may not be the direct cause of suicidal cases, it is considered to ‘fuel’ incidents affiliated to suicides. However, to reduce levels of suicide cases, alcohol use regulation is very necessary. High risk individuals are to be subjected to alcohol interlock. In addition, access to other substances that fuel suicide and unintentional deaths could be restricted. These have realized success in reducing suicide levels in some suicide-ravaged nations. For example, abridged accesses to Paracetamol and coal seam gas (in the United Kingdom) as well as reduced access to firearms and Barbiturates (in Australia) have reduced suicide cases considerably (Routley 7). In this regard, the only arising complication is that restriction the access and use of vehicles on roads is somewhat unfeasible. Furthermore, it is impractical to restrict the construction of tall buildings, roads and bridges as this would compromise developments. Road infrastructure and transport modes are imperative for nations to realize economic developments. The pre-crush, crush and post-crush methods could to some extent be employed to minimize suicide and unintentional deaths. When adopted, these methods can improve pedestrian detection, increase the chances of surviving for drivers and pedestrians who want to commit suicide as well as reduce the time taken between the road crashes and treatment. Pre crush methods are based on vehicle and road designs which enable them to emergently respond to avoid road accidents. Pedestrian detection can be improved by adopting designs of car bonnets and use of designed lights that improve the drivers’ night vision. The cars can also be designed with instant breaking systems that would enable them to stop emergently and avoid collision. Lower speed limits could also be set and implemented. This is because vehicles being driven at low speed can be quickly stopped to avert collisions. To prevent pedestrian deaths during collision, nations could adopt front vehicle designs which ensure that in the course of car-pedestrian collision, the pedestrians are not severely hurt. Such may include the designing of plastic and light metals rather than use of heavy metals in making the vehicle fronts and reduce bodily harm to pedestrians in case of an accident. Post-crush methods target ensuring high chances of survival for the victims of road crashes. These depend heavily upon the time taken between the crush and treatment. Arguably, about 17 percent of road crush victims die before receiving treatment. In order to reduce the time taken between the accident and treatment period, technologies such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and cellular phone technologies can be used in the development of emergence Mayday Systems. In the course of accidents, the air bag system would be activated, triggering the relay of distress signal to the control centers which can then quickly respond. Reductions of driver suicide cases reduce the unintentional deaths of other vehicle occupants too. The measures applied in the general prevention of drivers’ road deaths could be applied to prevent deaths that could result from attempted suicides. Occupant prevention strategies have been evolving with increasing competition among vehicle companies. These include airbags, impact absorption vehicle construction, survival cell design and seat belts. Yet the effectiveness of these methods requires the compliance of the drivers. For instance, if the driver chooses not to tighten seat belts, the methods effectiveness becomes rendered. The construction of strong road side barriers could reduce the drivers’ and other vehicle occupants’ both intentional and unintentional deaths. Other technological innovations that may find applicability include adoption of alcohol interlock systems, intelligent speed adaptation systems, smart licensing systems, driver monitoring systems and emergency Mayday care systems. Despite the fact that the infrastructure costs associated with setting up of the systems are so high, various nations and states as well as the concerned groups have slowly by slowly been adopting these approaches. Establishment of systems and infrastructure to prevent road suicide and unintentional deaths demands has indeed proven to be considerably effective. The use of these methods is a justifiable approach to reduce road deaths. Answer to Q3 There are high chances that these methods will be successful in curbing the ever increasing suicide trends, more especially those that occur on roads. However, in the event of their full adoption yet suicide rates continue increasing, there would be need for me to reconsider my logic. It is usually inappropriate to keep holding to tactics that have proven not to work effectively. Work cited Virginia, Routley, Suicide and Natural Deaths in Traffic: Review. Monash: Monash University Press. 2003. Print. Read More