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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]People are really bad at judging whether a car came to a full stop behind the white line.  A stop sign camera went in near our neighborhood and the email list was flooded with idiots posting their videos saying "see?  I STOPPED", but when you watch the video they either slowed some but didn't stop or stopped after the line.  That kind of "stopping" can make the difference between life and death like for this little girl.

No, I don't trust MPD or eye witnesses.  It's possible that the van driver stopped but I don't think it's likely. [b]Otherwise they would have been able to see a girl biking towards them and not started driving forward[/b].[/quote]

He might have seen her but assumed she would stop at the curb. Pedestrians only have the right of way if they're waiting at the curb or are in the intersection.

I think it's strange that people are so determined to hold the driver at fault. I'm sure this has wrecked him. But the police would have charged him if there was evidence he did anything wrong.[/quote]

[b]The driver is at fault because drivers have a legal obligation to exercise due care to avoid hitting people, with extra precaution for children. That's the law.[/b]

Now, do I blame the driver? I guess so. But I blame DDOT more. And all the people who think their right to drive is more important than other people's right to live.[/quote]

apparently the police didn't find evidence that he did not do this though. The kid was in the wrong place at the wrong time. You can't blame a child so who is really at fault here? The parent.

This is why you need to hold your kid's hand on busy streets!!!![/quote]

This faith in the police investigation is really ... something.[/quote]

Why do you not hold the father at fault at all? Why wasn't he making her stay right next to him? Why didn't they have a strict rule in place that she was not to go into the street at all without him?? And if they can't trust her to follow the rule at all times, then he needs to hold her hand.

I'm a parent of young kids. I know what they're like. This is exactly why you hold their hands and don't give them the freedom to bike up and down busy streets.[/quote]

I suspect what happened is the parent was biking slightly ahead of the child where they were both in the street at the same time. The driver could see the parent because their height was above the level of the bus, but could not see the child right behind him as her height was below the level of the bus. That explains why the driver "completely stopped." They stopped long enough for the parent, then proceeded when the child was still crossing right in front of the van. However, this also means the driver was not paying attention to the periphery and accelerated quickly once the father was right past the van.

A driver who is paying attention at a stop sign would notice who is entering from the side. Or then, perhaps even from the side, the view was obscured, again due to the height of the bus vs the height of the child.

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