At least in Brazil, it is of fundamental importance to change the judicial mentality, in order to give priority to the saving of lives. This can be accomplished by a marriage of SAFETY ENGINEERING CONCEPTS WITH VALUES OF CITIZENS RIGHTS, TO ACHIEVE THE HIGHEST SAFETY STANDARDS EVERYWHERE - in other words, to use intelligence and apply safety engineering concepts to daily life.

• Traffic can be seen as the movement of "POTENTIAL KILLING MACHINES." People use these killing machines of course without any intention to kill. The problem is the unexpected circumstances that can cause loss of control of the machines. Since humans are in control, human failures play the most important role.
• Vehicles, or the "killing machines," can be divided into two classes:

 

 

ACTIVE KILLING MACHINE, when the vehicle collides with a fixed obstacle or with other vehicle, causing death or injuries to its own passengers or to third parties.

PASSIVE KILLING MACHINE, when a vehicle receives the colliding action from another, which as a result causes death or injuries to the passengers of the colliding vehicle.

• Any vehicle can become an obstacle to the other, if it crosses its desired or accidental trajectory.
• Trucks become passive killers when lighter vehicles collide with their sides or rear ends. Trucks kill even when they are parked alongside road shoulders.
• Trucks kill passengers of light vehicles due to differences in height and in the resistance of their upper parts at the rear end or on the sides. This means that trucks do not absorb energy by deformation.
• It is possible and very important to minimize the consequences of these collisions.
• The way to achieve these positive results is to use correct PASSIVE SAFETY DEVICES. This must be accomplished in the only way which provides safety in real terms, as put forward below:

"STRINGENT LAW ENFORCEMENT AND PUNISHMENTS THAT WOULD NATURALLY FORCE TRUCK OWNERS TO GIVE ABSOLUTE PRIORITY TO PROVIDING SAFETY FOR THIRD PARTIES, INDEPENDENTLY OF ANY ROAD CHECKS, WHICH PRESENTLY IS NOT DONE. IN THIS IDEAL SITUATION, TRUCK OWNERS WILL TAKE CARE OF US VERY FRAGILE CAR PASSENGERS...

THIS MUST OCCUR FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE MAJORITY IN SOCIETY, WHO RIDE IN LIGHT VEHICLES.