Why I commute by motorcycle, pt. IV

NOTE: The previous posts in this series are here: (1), (2), (3).

Reuters reports that the death toll in yesterday's train crash in Amagasaki, Japan (near Osaka) has risen to 73.

The, train, packed with commuters, jumped the tracks yesterday and smashed into an apartment complex. ABC Radio Australia reports that driver error was the likely cause:

Authorities believe the train's 23-year-old driver was speeding and failed to negotiate a corner, throwing four of the train's seven carriages from the tracks in Amagasaki, 500 kilometres south-west of the capital, Tokyo.

The train, which was carrying some 580 passengers in Monday morning's rush hour, was running late after the driver missed a station and had to back up to let off passengers.

A friend of mine says that riding a motorcycle is "taking your life in your own hands". Well, yeah. That's exactly where I want it — not in the hands of some slacker kid who's having a bad day.

I may get hit on my bike someday, but if I do, it'll be because of some mistake I made, even if that mistake is nothing more than watching out for other drivers doing stupid things.

The 73 dead and hundreds of injured passengers on that train, on the other hand, were powerless to avoid their fate.