Car drivers are, unsurprisingly, responsible for the vast majority of deaths in car, bike, motorbike and pedestrian accidents. Even so, had I been asked five years ago to predict the main causes of deaths in major rail accidents, I wouldn’t have classed the idiots who drive cars among them.

How wrong I was.

I’m not singling out Gary Hart or the fuckwit who caused the latest disaster for *special* blame here – Mr Hart did the same as nearly everyone with a driving license in driving while half-awake; the latest guy may or may not have been attempting suicide but certainly followed the lead of many other imbeciles (and the people in that article are just the ones who got hit).

The driving system in the UK is fundamentally deranged, with levels of incompetence and idiocy allowed that would be illegal and (more importantly) untolerated in any industry or branch of public transport. The laws need completely replacing with a system that stops car drivers from wiping out those of us who prefer less murderous means of transport.

(side note: the greatest credit to come out of this goes to the designers of the MK3 coach. The ratio of bad-crash-ness to fatalities is extremely low, as in all major British rail accidents since Clapham Junction in 1988, because of the design of the carriages involved. This is another reason why all pre-1970s trains in regular passenger service need to be scrapped ASAP).