4 ms·
The article suggests that drivers who kill people get off lightly in NYC and that may be true. But what statistics say is that the City has been progressively
by aleyan 14y ago
The article suggests that drivers who kill people get off lightly in NYC and that may be true. But what statistics say is that the City has been progressively getting safer for pedestrians over the past decade.
There were 4.87 fatalities per 100,000 in NYC in 2001 and that number has dropped to 2.8 per 100,000 for 2011.
Perhaps City officials found it more useful to make safety improvements and changing the behavior of all drivers than to harshly punish drivers who made a fatal mistake after the fact.
http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.c0935b9a57bb4ef3daf2f1c701c789a0/index.jsp?pageID=mayor_press_release&catID=1194&doc_name=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nyc.gov%2Fhtml%2Fom%2Fhtml%2F2011b%2Fpr460-11.html&cc=unused1978&rc=1194&ndi=1 http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.c0935b9a57bb4...
- burgerbrain 14y agoWhat I really don't understand is this obsession some people seem to have with jailing people for a mistake that will already haunt them for the rest of their lives.
- T-hawk 14y agoDeterrence. Motivation for all the other drivers to pay attention and keep control of their cars at all times. Legislation alone can't stop pedestrian deaths, drivers must change their behavior.
- burgerbrain 14y agoThe desire to not go to jail is stronger than the desire to not kill someone? I know when I slow down for pedestrains I'm thinking about not hitting people, not not going to jail. Maybe I give others too much credit.
- narkee 14y agoI don't know about other places, but on the highway in Michigan near construction sites they sometimes have signs saying something like "If you injure a worker, it's a $5000 fine and up to 25 years in jail". Note the precedence of the $5000 fine before the 25 years of jail time. Clearly the Michigan DOT thinks that fines and jail time are necessary incentives to not kill or harm construction workers.
- burgerbrain 14y agoI'm sure they think it, but does that make it so?