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NYC startup founder Sophia D'Antoine dies after being struck crossing street

44 points by paulgb 3y ago

speedylight 3y ago
Driver was previously cited 5 times for speeding in a school zone but was allowed to keep his license? I’m always so nervous and hyperaware of my speed when I am driving in a school zone because you just never know what can happen. This was entirely preventable barring something outside the control of the driver that might’ve caused the crash.
- cobrabyte 3y ago
  > Driver was previously cited 5 times for speeding in a school zone but was allowed to keep his license? We have a lot of dumb laws on the books, but somehow we allow demonstrably reckless drivers to keep their license—sad times.
- pxmpxm 3y ago
  Almost certainly a ticket from a for-profit speed camera that for all practical purposes is nowhere near a school/park. They invariably end up in places like this * , large multilane road with minimal pedestrian access and a park/school within whatever maximum statutory distance of the park/school. You never find them an actual neighborhood next to a school, because they wouldn't make money ... * https://www.google.com/maps/@40.6680393,-73.9959523,3a,75y,331.3h,76.12t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s5wNJSjKCZg3Z9LeDQONjYA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu https://www.google.com/maps/@40.6680393,-73.9959523,3a,75y,3...
  - joecool1029 3y ago
    https://howsmydrivingny.nyc/f2iddx7a https://howsmydrivingny.nyc/f2iddx7a Yup, thanks to article's image it was easy to look up. Latest one they are past-due on too.
- zjp 3y ago
  In New York of all places. One of the main advantages of having good public transit should be the ability to yank peoples' licenses away without worrying it will put them out of work!
blueprint 3y ago
holy shit this makes me so angry if only he were younger so he could have his daughter or wife taken from him and suffer longer there are no consequences for some of the most depraved clingers-on to the good will of everyone else when will we make this world into one that isnt hostile to the living and favorable to mechanisms and predators probably never because we allow ourselves to be tricked by them willingly over and over i hate to say it but humanity needs to stop giving itself reasons for its own judgement of lack of merit. there is too much good in human history for the ignorant to destroy it like this in one swoop. don't be naive in handing the keys to the castle to an arbitrary person.
pgodzin 3y ago
Compare the reaction to Bob Lee's death from someone who was murdered by someone he knew vs the lack of reaction to the most likely way any of us are killed. Traffic violence has become completely normalized, just the cost of doing business. You can constantly speed through school zones with no repercussions, especially if you cover your plate. If you're looking to kill someone and get away with it, do it in your car.
- add-sub-mul-div 3y ago
  Yeah one was murder and the other wasn't. Of course there are different reactions. The car aspect is irrelevant.
  - erikaww 3y ago
    Case in point, it’s normalized violence. This is perhaps more tragic since it’s the fault of bad infrastructure and broken justice system empowering narcissists and criminals
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- CM30 3y ago
  So the difference between killing someone accidentally vs deliberately? If you deliberately kill someone with a vehicle, then that would also be murder and you'd get the same sort of punishment as if you used anything else. If you accidentally killed someone without a vehicle, you'd also get far less of a reaction as with this case. This case is a horrible tragedy and it's a farce that someone who kept breaking the law kept their license afterwards, but it's not evidence traffic violence is normalised. Just that people (rightly) treat accidental deaths as less of a big deal than deliberate ones. If you mean that driving is too dangerous overall, then sorry, but I'd disagree with that. Not only do most people not get into accidents when driving or around cars, but there are plenty of things in life that are dangerous that kill a lot of people that we've accepted are tradeoffs for a more free society.
  - 3y ago
diob 3y ago
Another reason to support public transit, albeit a sad one.
light_hue_1 3y ago
Speed kills. The difference between 30mph and 50mph is astronomical; life and death. https://lede-admin.usa.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/46/2016/05/Screen-Shot-2016-05-27-at-1.19.26-PM.png https://lede-admin.usa.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/si... This person would likely be alive if the driver wasn't speeding. They were caught speeding in school zones many times. We need to start enforcing speeding laws. You speed more than once, you don't drive for a few years minimum. You speed through a school zone multiple times, you never drive again.
- throwiforgtnlzy 3y ago
  The US is a corrupt, dysfunctional civilization that won't even do anything to stop mass shootings, so it certainly won't stop speeding or ensure corners don't get cut in the design or manufacturing of passenger transportation machines. The authoritarian-inspired consequences you suggest won't be applied fairly or properly, a priori.
rdl 3y ago
This is very sad (although a lot better than if she'd been suffering from some undisclosed illness for years or something, but dying at 30 is bad no matter what). We need self driving cars. They don't need to be better than the best possible human drivers; they just need to be a viable replacement for "normal" drivers, including and especially normal drivers at their own worst. Once we have stuff like that, increased penalties for harms caused from manual driving make sense.
porkbeer 3y ago
This is sad, but blaming the existince of cars, and not reminding people to look both ways before crossing, makes me feel most posters here have an agenda having zero to do with rememberance of the dead, or preservation of the living.
- paulgb 3y ago
  This is ridiculous victim-blaming. The speeding car went on to smash into a taxi, should the taxi also have “looked both ways”? No matter how vigilant a pedestrian is, their life is still in the hands of drivers. Someone who repeatedly breaks laws that exist for pedestrian safety should be removed from the road before something like this happens.
nemo1618 3y ago
Sophia and I were classmates at RPI. She was brilliant and funny and she carried herself with a refined lightness and dignity that is rarely seen these days, like gravity didn't pull on her as hard as the rest of us. I am crushed to hear of her passing at such a young age. Rest in peace, Sophia.

44 points by paulgb 3y ago

Driver was previously cited 5 times for speeding in a school zone but was allowed to keep his license? I’m always so nervous and hyperaware of my speed when I am driving in a school zone because you just never know what can happen. This was entirely preventable barring something outside the control of the driver that might’ve caused the crash.

cobrabyte 3y ago
> Driver was previously cited 5 times for speeding in a school zone but was allowed to keep his license? We have a lot of dumb laws on the books, but somehow we allow demonstrably reckless drivers to keep their license—sad times.
pxmpxm 3y ago
Almost certainly a ticket from a for-profit speed camera that for all practical purposes is nowhere near a school/park. They invariably end up in places like this * , large multilane road with minimal pedestrian access and a park/school within whatever maximum statutory distance of the park/school. You never find them an actual neighborhood next to a school, because they wouldn't make money ... * https://www.google.com/maps/@40.6680393,-73.9959523,3a,75y,331.3h,76.12t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s5wNJSjKCZg3Z9LeDQONjYA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu https://www.google.com/maps/@40.6680393,-73.9959523,3a,75y,3...
- joecool1029 3y ago
  https://howsmydrivingny.nyc/f2iddx7a https://howsmydrivingny.nyc/f2iddx7a Yup, thanks to article's image it was easy to look up. Latest one they are past-due on too.
zjp 3y ago
In New York of all places. One of the main advantages of having good public transit should be the ability to yank peoples' licenses away without worrying it will put them out of work!

blueprint 3y ago

holy shit this makes me so angry if only he were younger so he could have his daughter or wife taken from him and suffer longer there are no consequences for some of the most depraved clingers-on to the good will of everyone else when will we make this world into one that isnt hostile to the living and favorable to mechanisms and predators probably never because we allow ourselves to be tricked by them willingly over and over i hate to say it but humanity needs to stop giving itself reasons for its own judgement of lack of merit. there is too much good in human history for the ignorant to destroy it like this in one swoop. don't be naive in handing the keys to the castle to an arbitrary person.

pgodzin 3y ago

Compare the reaction to Bob Lee's death from someone who was murdered by someone he knew vs the lack of reaction to the most likely way any of us are killed. Traffic violence has become completely normalized, just the cost of doing business. You can constantly speed through school zones with no repercussions, especially if you cover your plate. If you're looking to kill someone and get away with it, do it in your car.

add-sub-mul-div 3y ago
Yeah one was murder and the other wasn't. Of course there are different reactions. The car aspect is irrelevant.
- erikaww 3y ago
  Case in point, it’s normalized violence. This is perhaps more tragic since it’s the fault of bad infrastructure and broken justice system empowering narcissists and criminals
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
CM30 3y ago
So the difference between killing someone accidentally vs deliberately? If you deliberately kill someone with a vehicle, then that would also be murder and you'd get the same sort of punishment as if you used anything else. If you accidentally killed someone without a vehicle, you'd also get far less of a reaction as with this case. This case is a horrible tragedy and it's a farce that someone who kept breaking the law kept their license afterwards, but it's not evidence traffic violence is normalised. Just that people (rightly) treat accidental deaths as less of a big deal than deliberate ones. If you mean that driving is too dangerous overall, then sorry, but I'd disagree with that. Not only do most people not get into accidents when driving or around cars, but there are plenty of things in life that are dangerous that kill a lot of people that we've accepted are tradeoffs for a more free society.
- 3y ago

diob 3y ago

Another reason to support public transit, albeit a sad one.

light_hue_1 3y ago

Speed kills. The difference between 30mph and 50mph is astronomical; life and death. https://lede-admin.usa.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/46/2016/05/Screen-Shot-2016-05-27-at-1.19.26-PM.png https://lede-admin.usa.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/si... This person would likely be alive if the driver wasn't speeding. They were caught speeding in school zones many times. We need to start enforcing speeding laws. You speed more than once, you don't drive for a few years minimum. You speed through a school zone multiple times, you never drive again.

throwiforgtnlzy 3y ago
The US is a corrupt, dysfunctional civilization that won't even do anything to stop mass shootings, so it certainly won't stop speeding or ensure corners don't get cut in the design or manufacturing of passenger transportation machines. The authoritarian-inspired consequences you suggest won't be applied fairly or properly, a priori.

rdl 3y ago

This is very sad (although a lot better than if she'd been suffering from some undisclosed illness for years or something, but dying at 30 is bad no matter what). We need self driving cars. They don't need to be better than the best possible human drivers; they just need to be a viable replacement for "normal" drivers, including and especially normal drivers at their own worst. Once we have stuff like that, increased penalties for harms caused from manual driving make sense.

porkbeer 3y ago

This is sad, but blaming the existince of cars, and not reminding people to look both ways before crossing, makes me feel most posters here have an agenda having zero to do with rememberance of the dead, or preservation of the living.

paulgb 3y ago
This is ridiculous victim-blaming. The speeding car went on to smash into a taxi, should the taxi also have “looked both ways”? No matter how vigilant a pedestrian is, their life is still in the hands of drivers. Someone who repeatedly breaks laws that exist for pedestrian safety should be removed from the road before something like this happens.

nemo1618 3y ago

Sophia and I were classmates at RPI. She was brilliant and funny and she carried herself with a refined lightness and dignity that is rarely seen these days, like gravity didn't pull on her as hard as the rest of us. I am crushed to hear of her passing at such a young age. Rest in peace, Sophia.