… and he calls some random people after he mows down the cyclists, but not 911? How is he only facing misdemeanor charges?!?
Regarding the charges,
“[The evidence] just wasn’t there. It’s heartbreaking and it’s unsatisfactory but it is where we are at right now,” she said to ABC15 in November after she told victims she wouldn’t file felony charges. “It’s a collision where we cannot show with the evidence that there was a conscious disregard of a risk that this individual made.”
Why is it that someone can run into over a dozen cyclists, killing some, but also not have made a “conscious disregard of risk”? If it’s true that the driver was not consciously disregarding risk, but we still got this outcome, it’s absolutely true that the process for obtaining a permit for his vehicle and/or speeds is way too lenient.
One of the problems of car centric society is that the process for licensing almost has to be too lenient, because it causes major issues with people not being able to get around unless almost everybody can get a license, which means that regardless of safety, the bar has to be set low.
It’s absolutely this. Let’s say that you wanted to make sure this never happened again. You could use the Police playbook, “more training,” “better roads,” “more awareness,” "people centric design,"an unlimited number of buzzwords. But the only solution that would help is fewer cars and fewer roads for them. Non-car infrastructure must be developed, and unfortunately it IS zero-sum as space is finite and valuable.
Because people in cars do not see cyclists as people. And the powers that be are people in cars.
What is it with this world that we protect car crimes so much like nothing else gets consistent protection in western countries. There is nothing blocking vision here no loose surfaces he could have seen them for a mile which only leaves the driver at fault even if unintentional you have a social responsibility for the safety of others when you’re in public. It’s pretty obvious he did something that negated this. Riding with cameras is becoming as mandatory as a helmet these days
90% of these I see involve a pickup.
Maybe the driver should be forced to drive compact vehicles for several years.
That said it does seem like it could be a texting and driving situation which would warrant more punishment.
I’m usually against technology lock outs but I do long for cars to be able to limit phone functionality while driving.
Honestly, there are now lots of eye tracking software that can be used to check if someone is looking where they’re supposed to. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be common in the near term as we’re forced to look at ads…
Aside from that, fuck cars.
My car turns off cruise control if you look away from the road for any length of time.
This makes me physically ill.
Cars are the only weapon in the world where you could injure or kill a few dozen people “by accident” and be let off without being held responsible. And it happens all the time.
Even when someone is charged with anything, it never accounts for a loss of human life. It’s always some BS traffic violation that might as well be a parking violation.