The Privatization of Roads and Highways - Ludwig von Mises Institute

Who is Responsible for Traffic Deaths? 343
entrance onto the public streets and highways was a “voluntary”
one. Very much to the contrary, when you eliminate a safe alternative,
“allowing” people to venture out onto a very much more
dangerous one, you are forcing them to make this choice under
duress. So, yes, the government is very much criminally responsible
for the deaths they cause, all of them, not just those subtracted
by the number who would perish on private roads, White
to the contrary notwithstanding.
As I write this, I read an editorial in the local paper, The
Times-Picayune entitled “111 is greater than 53.” 30 According to
the editorialist, in the two years prior to the repeal of the mandatory
helmet law for motorcyclists in Louisiana, there were 53
fatalities for drivers of this vehicle, while the comparable figure
for a similar time period afterward was 111. Yes, but every one of
those 53 was what we can characterize as a coercive death: drivers
were laboring under a coercive law. Similarly, every one of
those 111 was what we can characterize as a “voluntary” death:
drivers were free to assume these risks or not. (Helmet wearing
is not illegal when it is not mandated.) A similar point may be
made in comparing road fatalities under public and private
aegis.
This author further beclouds the real issues when he says:
It is an important libertarian principle that we judge government
by the same standards we apply to ordinary criminals.
The question is: does liability fall on the landowner for an accident
involving two other parties on his premises? 31
White is absolutely correct when he calls for equal treatment
of public and private or “ordinary” criminals. 32 But there are
none of the latter in the present scenario; here, there are only the
30October 31, 2003, p. B6.
31White, “Comment on Block,” pp. 3–4.
32My paper, Block (2004b), is an attempt to do just that.