Reply to post: Re: faces anywhere from 12 and 44 months behind bars

Safety driver at the wheel of self-driving Uber car that killed a pedestrian is charged with negligent homicide

skeptical i
Unhappy

Re: faces anywhere from 12 and 44 months behind bars

America loves cars and drivers more than pedestrians, bicyclists, and anyone else deemed "in the way". Even when legal pedestrian crossings are a half-mile apart, The System still gets its panties in a wad when pedestrians dare to "jaywalk" instead of walking (or wheelchairing or schlepping a kiddie pram or ...) way out of the way to a "legal" crossing and then all the way back. The NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) accident report for Ms. Herzberg's death -- https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/HAR1903.pdf -- indicates that at the time of the crash the median served as an unofficial pedestrian crossing: one assumes the City of Tempe would not spend resources on "no pedestrian crossing" signs unless there were plenty of such crossings. Sad that the City of Tempe knew that pedestrians crossed here, and chose to see this as pedestrian behaviour that needs to be "fixed" instead of an indication that the pedestrian infrastructure is woefully inadequate.

That said, there is no indication that better lighting, a user-activated "begging button" that triggers flashing red lights (to stop cars and allow pedestrians to cross), or other pedestrian safety measures would have helped in this particular instance. Possibly, but not assuredly.

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