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TW, I agree with most everything you have said... except I called them "incidents", not "accidents", for a reason.
I just watched a CSPAN Hearing of the National Traffic Safety Board which was focusing on drivers in my age-group (elderly).
The "experts" testified about how cars are going in the direction of measuring the driver's situation (sleep, distracted, night-glare) etc.
and either giving the driver a warning or actually taking charge.
They also described how each age group responds to technical innovations.
Older folk have more trouble learning and understanding new gadgets, but once self-trained they then tend to use them.
Young folk seem to accept new gadgets immediately and rely on them completely.
One example given was the gismo that detects a child or bike or car when the car is in reverse.
Elders tend to look back and use mirrors, but young folk will just back up until the alarm goes off !
If this is even close to being true, then the new nuclear plant control rooms are going to have to be a lot like HAL in the movie, 2001
... able to fend off the MBA's working the night shift.
Unfortunately, the BP-type supervising engineers haven't given me a whole lot of confidence.
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