Thinning the herd

Why are school buses still stopping at empty railroad crossings? I was driving through town this morning, during the busiest part of the rush hour and on the four lane highway with a fully lighted and safety guarded railroad crossing a school bus stops to look and listen for a train. Cars were swerving to avoid the bus as they came around the curve, not expecting it to be stopped there. This seems like it would cause more accidents than buses stopping at the tracks would save and in the five plus years I've lived in this town I have never seen a train cross that street.

The only bus versus train accidents that I can remember all involved buses that were stopped on the railroad tracks, a problem that is not solved by the look and listen approach but by getting rid of the ignorant bus drivers. Back in the days before every railroad crossing was lit and had bells and gates, stopping to check for a train may have been a good idea and a life saver. Now it's just an inconvenience. Sure one life saved is worth the mild inconvenience and it's not the kids fault their driver is a moron, but with all of the modern safety features it just seems like a waste of time and energy.

Besides, with all the good things we are doing to save lives such as stopping buses at railroad crossings, installing seat belts and airbags in cars and smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in our homes we are offsetting it with things like putting up guard rails around the Grand Canyon. When modern medicine allows us to live forever, what are we going to do with all of these people, the ones who can't save themselves from stupidity. Whatever happened to thinning the herd?

Maybe it's time to remove some of these safety features so the guy who's too stupid to step back from the edge of the canyon actually falls off. So the woman who spills the hot coffee she ordered in her crotch because the cup didn't tell her it was hot can no longer reproduce morons. And the idiot who thinks it's a good idea to unclog a running snow thrower actually gets sucked in, chewed up and sprayed across the lawn. We need to remove these people from society because our tax money will be paying their medical bills when we all switch to universal health care.