The governor’s a likable person. She’s smart, too. But, sometimes, I just don’t know what she and others at the State Capitol are smoking.
Case in point: “Carbon monoxide detectors will be required in all new homes under a law signed Thursday by Gov. Jennifer Granholm. Advocates urged all families to install the detectors, which typically cost $30 to $50 and warn of the odorless, colorless and lethal gas,” reports the Detroit Free Press.
Really? This is such a danger that we all must be required to guard ourselves, whether we like it or not?
The CDC says 400 Americans annuallly die of such poisoning — with those over age 65 most vulnerable. And guess how this law came about?
“The law, which takes effect Monday, was prompted by the 2003 carbon monoxide deaths of Gene, 73, and Patty, 72, Overbeck in their retirement home at Elk Lake in northern Michigan. They died after Patty Overbeck accidentally left their car running (emphasis mine) in the attached garage and fumes entered the home, which did not have a carbon monoxide detector.”
So, because one elderly woman is forgetful, we all have to buy detectors that will never do anything in 99.99 percent of our homes? super.
Want to talk danger and public safety? Fine. In 2007, 41,059 people died on U.S. roadways. “Cell phone distraction causes 2,600 deaths and 330,000 injuries in the United States every year, according to the journal’s publisher, the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.” This report was from 2005.
So, if Granholm and lawmakers are really worried about lives, why do they sit on their hands about banning cell-phone use in cars? They are killing people every day they do not act, aren’t they?
But, at least we are protected from the danger of leaving our cars running in our attached garages.
