For several seconds in the video, he turns the camera around to show the scene on the bridge where you can see multiple people and bicycles lying on the roadway. “Babe, I killed somebody, babe.”
… and he calls some random people after he mows down the cyclists, but not 911? How is he only facing misdemeanor 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.
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...
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
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.
We live in a car cult with auto impunity. If you want to kill someone and get away with it, run them over.
On the other hand individuals often have no way to escape car dependency. The crimes of individuals are nothing compared to the unpunished crimes of the auto/oil cartels.