Last week a woman tragically died on a roller coaster ride at a Dallas amusement park. From news reports it appears her safety restraint opened. The media is all over this story. They can’t understand why there is no police investigation. So the police, responding to the media noise, are now investigating. What are they investigating? Do they really think someone intentionally opened the restraint? Do they think the manufacturer has it rigged so that every ten years the restraint opens and drops someone out? Short of active bad behavior, the police have nothing to investigate. The last accident on the coaster was more than ten years ago. So this is not a pattern of behavior. It is a tragic accident—and nothing more.

Sure a person is dead. That person’s family will most likely negotiate a major settlement or they will sue. I know that does not return the mother, but it is what we do. The insurance carrier will investigate. If something is wrong with the coaster, or the coaster design, it will be fixed because money talks. Since coaster deaths are just not common in this country there is no reason to even suspect bad behavior on anyone’s part. So why is the press all exercised, locally as well as nationally?

The sad truth is that when something of this nature happens, something that is rare, it is easy to cover because it stands out. Just like following a red bean in a sea of green beans, it is easy to follow the action. It is easy to follow the story. That is what journalism has become, a series of simple to follow stories. But just since the roller coaster death, over 400 people have died and 4000 people have been injured on our highways. Yet at least one Senator has called for national legislation for roller coaster safety when only a few people have died in over ten years. What has this politician done to stop the carnage on our highways? Nothing, because it still continues unabated.

Children, a lot of children in fact, die when they are left unattended in the heat. A simple sensor that would sound a siren if a child is sensed in the seat when the temperature rises to a certain point could be made mandatory, but it is not. Yet, the media and the politicians are concerned about roller coaster safety when only one person dies! Because it is easy to follow the story.

Where are the media and the politicians when a person dies in an accident on the highway? Where are media and the politicians when a child dies from heat in a locked car? Where are the media and the politicians when 40 children are shot on the streets of Chicago in a few weeks time? Those are the things that really matter in us all. But the media and the politicians-well they are busy investigating why a passenger restraint opened once in ten years in a Dallas amusement park.

Is it any wonder then why we can’t solve the real problems that diminish our collective lives?