Oh yeah, I think I have a point to my previous post...

I'm of the opinion that attentiveness can be taught, that people can learn to more effectively use the information that they're getting. There's only so much that a person can pay attention to, and if they're distracted -- OR if they're focusing too much on something that's still important, like the car in front or traffic approaching from the side -- they won't be ready to catch something that unexpectedly pops up.

It takes time & effort to teach people how to raise their situational awareness... and I don't think that that's being done.