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> if it (or an equivalent product) would have stopped an accident, and you chose not to use it, then you are culpable to some extent Speed limiters on cars wou
by buro9 11y ago
> if it (or an equivalent product) would have stopped an accident, and you chose not to use it, then you are culpable to some extent
Speed limiters on cars would prevent a large number of deaths in which pedestrians are killed.
Are all drivers culpable for pedestrian deaths because they do not have speed limiters even though such things exist and you chose not to use it?
If we stop considering them "accidents" perhaps we can move beyond the "Oops, you're dead" culture and start thinking that these are all avoidable incidents.
Cyclist death hasn't been attributable to visibility... but to a wide variety of causes ranging from poorly designed junctions, a class of vehicles not suitable to rush hour city use, some individual drivers, some individual cyclists. I know of no incident, not even a single one, in which the coroner ruled that cyclist visibility (or lack of) was a cause of the incident.
I was watching the news this lunch about the terrorist attacks in France and Tunisia... but the number dead is nothing, a rounding error, compared to the number killed on the road every day. This is way more terrifying and should appal everyone. A very large deal of it is avoidable, blaming other parties, getting defensive... it's not constructive. There are no easy answers, as a collective, as a society we need to take responsibility for road safety, re-design junctions, re-evaluate the vehicles we want on the roads, re-evaluate how our standards for training for all road users. Spray paint doesn't cut it.
- onion2k 11y agoAre all drivers culpable for pedestrian deaths because they do not have speed limiters even though such things exist and you chose not to use it? Yes. In the case of cars the speed limiter is the legal speed limit for the road you're driving on, and if you choose not to use it then you are criminally culpable even if there isn't an accident. It doesn't have to be a technological solution if there's a good alternative. Maybe we should do the same for cyclists - decide on a measurable value for visibility and make it a crime to be cycling below that limit.
- buro9 11y agoCannot tell if serious. But if we're going for crazy suggestions, how about we call it murder and if a person causes another person's death on the road then they go to jail for murder for a long long time. OK, that's silly (is it?!), how about changing insurance liability to something like the system that exists in Japan, which I understand makes the larger vehicle by default liable in all road traffic incidents. That's not bad, how about we make it criminal to operate a vehicle in which you cannot prove that you have 340' visibility (20' being maxmimally permitted blind spots). We could even consider changing HGV use in cities, to require a dual-licence.... this isn't actually a silly suggestion... whereby the vehicle itself is licensed for operation in a city and comes with additional safety requirements, and the driver has to have additional driving tests to prove that they can operate such a vehicle in such an environment. Wouldn't you rather move towards solutions that attack the root cause rather than attempt to criminalise large swathes of the population for no proven benefit?
- lorenzhs 11y agoLights and wheel reflectors are mandatory in Germany, even if you only ride during the day. While this provides many accidental accidents, it doesn't do anything about the main issues, attitude and inattentive drivers. I have daytime running lights [1], reflective tyres, as well as spoke reflectors. That doesn't prevent motorists from ignoring my right of way. [1] http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/b&m-hl.asp http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/b&m-hl.asp - I have the Eyc T Senso plus model. It has signal LEDs that are directed at oncoming traffic as well as to the sides (to some extent) to provide maximum visibility during the day. See http://www.bumm.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Katalog/B_M__Catalogue_2014_15__English.pdf#page=6 http://www.bumm.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Katalog/B_M__Catalo...