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"Struck" is a strange euphemism for "killed". :(
by mLuby 8y ago
"Struck" is a strange euphemism for "killed". :(
- nkrisc 8y agoI agree, but in this context "struck" is what happened. "Killed" was the consequence in this case but not necessarily a guaranteed one (although at the speeds involved in this particular case, it was almost certainly guaranteed).
- mLuby 8y agoPedantically true, but in this case (and most) the result is more newsworthy than the action. See "person pulls trigger many times in school".
- danso 8y agoThe event of interest is the vehicle striking/killing someone. Pulling the trigger is not that in the context of a shooting, and "pulling the trigger" is not really a euphemism for shooting and killing someone with a firearm.
- solarkraft 8y ago"person shoots at people in school" still doesn't convey them killing anyone when the effect is a newsworthy subject (though maybe not that much in the US).
- nkrisc 8y agoYes, it was pedantic. I didn't want it to be but I won't pretend it wasn't. The point I was trying to make is that I believe the noteworthy event is that a self-driving car struck a person, without even attempting to avoid it. That she was killed is a tragic twist to the story. I believe that even if she wasn't killed it would still be a noteworthy event because, again, the car did not attempt to avoid it. I do not at all intend to diminish the fact that Uber killed someone.
- jeffreyrogers 8y agoI was running into the word count limit. The actual article uses "Struck, Killed" but that wouldn't fit. I took out killed because struck captured what happened in the incident better.