School's Starting

I was driving past the high school this morning, and had to detour around this city truck parked in my lane so that the city worker could use the truck as a ladder to trim the low hanging branches which were partially obscuring the school speed limit sign. I'm not sure what the OSHA *regulations are on tree trimming, but I'm pretty sure there is probably a rule about improper use of the truck for a ladder.**

It seems that summer has barely begun, but the Santa Rosa school kids go back to school on Thursday. The fact that many of the kids at the high school are driving themselves makes me wonder who the sign is intended for....

Peter and Will have also gotten their hair cut. Perhaps the idea was that their hair was obscuring their brains? They also have new shoes. Putting one's best foot forward is an important part of the back to school ritual.

*Occupational Safety and Health Administration

**There was an article in the paper this morning comparing the time and cost involved in building the original Bay Bridge in the 1930's (5.5 years, including a tunnel between the two halves, and under budget) and the current replacement of the Eastern half of the bridge which took 5 years just to decide on a design. It has been under construction for 11 years, still isn't finished, and is costing almost 5 times more than the original estimate.

The difference apparently is largely due to environmental and safety regulations. Environmental Impact reports weren't required in the '30's and an acceptable rule of thumb in high steel work was one death per $1million--24 men on the original bridge. The article concluded with the statement that in the '30s "the bridge itself was the thing people valued....since then the values of our society have shifted 180 degrees."

I might add that while no workers have died on the new span, several people have perished in freak accidents due to the weird configurations and changes made to the still working bridge during construction of the new one.

When did we stop using common sense and start futilely trying to make a rule or regulation or law to govern every aspect of human behavior?