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Are there any statistics what happens to drivers at fault that kill another car driver? What would be the "best" outcome in these cases? Do you want to throw s

by thetrb 13y ago

Are there any statistics what happens to drivers at fault that kill another car driver? What would be the "best" outcome in these cases? Do you want to throw someone in jail for making an unintentional mistake? Should there just be a civil lawsuit where either the driver or the insurance pays to the victim's family? I don't have an answer to that, just asking for opinions.

dmm 13y ago
> Are there any statistics what happens to drivers at fault that kill another car driver? I would argue that cyclists are different because they are much more vulnerable than other vehicles and the law should reflect that fact.
arjie 13y ago
I don't know about jail, but I find it hard to believe that people who have demonstrated incompetence with a motor vehicle, fatal incompetence, are allowed to drive. Anyway, there really is only one long term solution: exclusive roads for non-pedestrian, non-motor vehicles. We should aim to solve these problems by making it hard for people to have them. I don't think a punishment deterrent really works in situations like these. Most people drive in a switched off mode, and they aren't going to change.
hetman 13y ago
How do we determine "unintentional"? Does having a blase attitude towards the road qualify? Most people don't even internalise the fact they're driving a ball of steel weighing over a tonne with the potential to mame or kill. Is that entirely their fault or of a society that treats driving as a right rather than a privilege and doesn't bother to educate the driver with advanced skills to handle the death machine.
sliverstorm 13y ago
A key difference, I think, is when one driver kills another there is often a more grievous error involved. With cyclists on the other hand, it only takes a tiny error at low speeds to have a fatal accident. I'm thinking the magnitude of the error might be playing into verdicts.
mikeash 13y ago
At the very least, loss of driving privileges pending classwork and retesting should be required. If a death is accidental then that lessens the severity, but it's still pretty high. If we're going to let you drive a two-ton hunk of metal in close proximity to squishy humans, then you bear a substantial responsibility to have the capability to do this safely. Unfortunately, this attitude is anathema in the US. Personally, I think we should raise the driving age, greatly raise driving test standards, and require regular re-testing at an interval of a couple of years. I got my license at the age of 16 by passing a test that a half-blind monkey would have no trouble with, and that was the last time that anyone ever officially inspected my driving. It's insane. But this will never happen, because a large segment of the US population would tread that sort of thing as an attack on their rights. People generally vastly overestimate their own skill behind the wheel and take the idea of regular testing as a slight against them. I have to go through a skills check every two years in order to keep legally flying airplanes, even though the only person I'm ever likely to kill there is myself and my passenger if I have one. But I'm allowed to drive a car that could easily kill a dozen people or more if driven negligently, even though I haven't been tested on my skills in almost two decades.

by thetrb 13y ago

dmm 13y ago

> Are there any statistics what happens to drivers at fault that kill another car driver? I would argue that cyclists are different because they are much more vulnerable than other vehicles and the law should reflect that fact.

arjie 13y ago

I don't know about jail, but I find it hard to believe that people who have demonstrated incompetence with a motor vehicle, fatal incompetence, are allowed to drive. Anyway, there really is only one long term solution: exclusive roads for non-pedestrian, non-motor vehicles. We should aim to solve these problems by making it hard for people to have them. I don't think a punishment deterrent really works in situations like these. Most people drive in a switched off mode, and they aren't going to change.

hetman 13y ago

How do we determine "unintentional"? Does having a blase attitude towards the road qualify? Most people don't even internalise the fact they're driving a ball of steel weighing over a tonne with the potential to mame or kill. Is that entirely their fault or of a society that treats driving as a right rather than a privilege and doesn't bother to educate the driver with advanced skills to handle the death machine.

sliverstorm 13y ago

A key difference, I think, is when one driver kills another there is often a more grievous error involved. With cyclists on the other hand, it only takes a tiny error at low speeds to have a fatal accident. I'm thinking the magnitude of the error might be playing into verdicts.

mikeash 13y ago

At the very least, loss of driving privileges pending classwork and retesting should be required. If a death is accidental then that lessens the severity, but it's still pretty high. If we're going to let you drive a two-ton hunk of metal in close proximity to squishy humans, then you bear a substantial responsibility to have the capability to do this safely. Unfortunately, this attitude is anathema in the US. Personally, I think we should raise the driving age, greatly raise driving test standards, and require regular re-testing at an interval of a couple of years. I got my license at the age of 16 by passing a test that a half-blind monkey would have no trouble with, and that was the last time that anyone ever officially inspected my driving. It's insane. But this will never happen, because a large segment of the US population would tread that sort of thing as an attack on their rights. People generally vastly overestimate their own skill behind the wheel and take the idea of regular testing as a slight against them. I have to go through a skills check every two years in order to keep legally flying airplanes, even though the only person I'm ever likely to kill there is myself and my passenger if I have one. But I'm allowed to drive a car that could easily kill a dozen people or more if driven negligently, even though I haven't been tested on my skills in almost two decades.