Reply to The death of Allie Hart and the need for safer streets

Forum Index » Metropolitan DC Local Politics

Reply to "The death of Allie Hart and the need for safer streets"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Does anyone know what actually happened?

It seems like the dad shouldn't have let a small child bike across the crosswalk alone.  But is that what happened?[/quote]

The driver hit the child in a crosswalk and killed her. That's what happened.[/quote]

Did she dart out on her bike or was she watching for traffic?  Where was the dad?  The the truck stop at the stop sign?  [/quote]

She was five. There are no circumstances where it's acceptable for a five-year-old to be killed by a driver. Instead of asking whom to blame, please ask how to prevent this from happening to others. What can we do to make streets that are safe for five-year-olds?

[/quote]

There is nothing you can do to prevent this from happening again, ok. It is absolutely tragic and it's horrible, but pedestrian deaths are a fact of life.

Driving is not taken seriously in this country. People just don't pay attention. But I don't think you or anyone else can change those things.[/quote]

Here are five things off the top of my head that can be done to reduce pedestrian fatalities:

1) [b]Revise criminal code to make it manslaughter if you kill a pedestrian in a crosswalk and actually prosecute it[/b]
2) Daylight every single intersection in the city with bollards- make it so the last one or two parking spaces are taken away and are open to improve nightlines
3) Lobby the federal government to require things like side flaps and better nightlines in vehicles (this is already being done by several advocacy groups)
4) Increase enforcement of things like speeding, running redlights
5) Redesign roads to naturally slow down drivers- bulbouts, speed bumps, chicanes etc

None of these are quick fixes but if people keep lobbying local and federal officials, only voting for council members with records of introducing safe streets legislation etc then they can gradually change.

[/quote]

I have a very hard time with automatic arrest/penalties, it could devastate two people's life. [b]My DH ran out into the street at 9/10 when he was playing with friends and the neighbor hit him.[/b] She was only going 10-15MPH and nearly had a heart attack. He was fine, but it was 100% his fault.

Yes, killing someone is obviously a severe extreme, but if he had been at a different angle, or she hadn't braked soon enough, it might have had a different outcome.

I posted yesterday (which was deleted) that pedestrians do not have a right of way in a crosswalk when a car is already in the middle of the intersection. If a child or adult darted out in front off me in the crosswalk, I don't believe the motorist should be deemed automatically at fault.

I also said yesterday that drivers are crazy. I live on a corner and people (incl my neighbors) rarely stop. Many don't even brake. [/quote]

Was he in a crosswalk?  You bolded language about making it manslaughter to kill someone in a crosswalk.  If so, then no, it would not have been your husband's fault if he had been killed (even if he wasn't in a crosswalk it wouldn't have been either- it would have been the fault of 100 years of auto lobbying that puts the convenience of drivers over the lives of pedestrians).

[b]Also, seriously gross to say that a ten year old would be at fault for running and playing with his kids and getting killed.[/b]  There are many people that made decisions that would have led to that that could be blamed before a ten year old.  [/quote]

So, whose "fault" is it that his neighbor hit him? Is it hers because she have been walking to the grocery store? Or, is it a "no fault" accident, which people have said upthread?

What decision did she and "many other people" make that caused him to go up on his hood? Should he have blamed her for the past 50 years?

I think this kind of reasoning just makes @sshole drivers double down and makes the government less likely to listen to people who want better safety measures. Which is sad. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics