Thinking About: The ‘M’ Word

Miracles are everywhere these days or so it appears. We have the miracle of birth (actually a very well understood and completely natural process) and miracle escapes from earthquakes when survivors emerge from the rubble days after the event (when the human body is known to have great resources in extremis and we are, at least on occasion, surprisingly hard to kill) or when an individual is found relatively unharmed from a plane or train crash (although it’s not that much of a miracle to those who died or lay in hospital severely injured) and just a few days ago we apparently witnessed a miracle in Kent when over 130 vehicles collided in thick fog without a single fatality. Everyone seemed to hail it as a miracle – despite the fact that it certainly was not.

The thing that made me angry, sad and amused by the discussion of the accident on the BBC breakfast news the next day was the frequent use of the M word – Miracle. Yet almost as soon as it was uttered the qualifications followed. First up was the fact that since the 1970’s fatal road accidents had been steadily reducing to less than 50% of what it was a few decades ago and that this was generally due to two factors – that seat-belts are legally compulsory (and that most people use them) and that motor vehicle technology has been steadily improving over the years making cars ever safer. Air-bags, ABS breaking systems, crumple zones and a host of other innovations have steadily reduced the number of injuries and fatalities in accidents even as extreme as those seen on the Sheppey Crossing in Kent. Another factor not mentioned on that morning after was the lack of HGV collisions in this pile-up. As you can imagine the carnage caused by the impact of Heavy Goods Vehicles into stationary traffic is predictably lethal. Not so in this case as the HGV vehicles involved managed to stop in good time and there is even some evidence that a quick thinking driver blocked the entrance to the overpass preventing more vehicles from entering the accident zone. So the lack of death on that foggy morning was far less of a miracle and far more of an example of our ability and intent to legislate and manufacture safer and safer motor vehicles. Indeed it has been argued that such incidents in the future will become progressively rarer as AEB systems (autonomous emergency braking) - where the car brakes automatically – become more widespread and future HGV are compulsorily fitted with forward collision warnings making such events rarer still.

The M word is used far too much. Its usual definition is “An event that appears inexplicable by the laws of nature and so is held to be supernatural in origin or an act of God” so it does not simply mean that something is unexpected or fortunate. The fact that no one died on the Sheppey Crossing is not inexplicable and does not violate the known laws of nature. Indeed I have yet to hear about any ‘miracle’ that fits that definition. Maybe our news reporters and their talking-head experts should stop using a word they clearly do not understand. Or am I asking for a miracle to occur?