Everyone knows drink driving is not only illegal but a bad thing to do, because it kills and maims people. But blink driving is a scourge that's killing and maiming even more people.
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So why do so many of us keep doing it?
There are more fatal road crashes involving fatigue than alcohol in NSW: 69 compared with 47 in the year to July.
The road safety people are looking at face recognition technology that sets off an alarm in your car when you start blinking too much, an indicator fatigue has taken hold.
Other changes are coming to boost road safety.
At hundreds of busy intersections across the state, pedestrians are getting an earlier green light so they can cross the road before cars start coming around the corner.
Trials are under way to embed pedestrian red lights in the ground so the people gazing down at their smart phones – yes, even while approaching a road crossing – have a greater chance of noticing them.
This looks like being the worst year on NSW roads since 2009.
The best thing that can be said about the increase in road fatalities is that it is coming off a low base. But there are new dimensions to the problem.
We can be thankful that the annual slaughter-by-car is much reduced since 1978 when it peaked with an appalling 1384 deaths.
The number of deaths in 2016 is likely to be less than a third of that. That is a remarkable public policy achievement.
It's a credit to the government agencies which have worked to create safer driving environments and raise awareness of the risks, and to the people of this state who have heeded the warnings and modified their behaviour.
It's also an antidote to whingeing about the nanny state. The right to play loose with one's own life ends at the point where you put others at risk.
We can see no problem with the prudent outlay of taxpayer money on proven ways of keeping people alive and out of hospital.
After record low deaths in 2014, the upward trajectory in road fatalities that began in 2015 demands attention.
The statistics also seem to reflect intensification of work and the bewitching effect of mobile phones, though further research is needed.
Life has changed a lot since the 1970s. The deaths now occurring on the roads reflect some of those changes.
