Former Astronaut Dies After Cycling Accident

[kmehrzad]

I heard a different take on the incident with the little girl ... her sisters made it across the road, she didn't and the 80 yr. old driver didn't see her, etc.

Regarding texting, that's my hot button. How many times have you ridden alongside someone and seen them texting on their phones? Scares the living daylights out of me when I think one quick second is all it takes for them to be looking down and not see a pedestrian, cyclist, whomever. They're certainly not concentrating on the road or their surroundings.

[Veronica]

Regarding texting, that's my hot button. How many times have you ridden alongside someone and seen them texting on their phones? Scares the living daylights out of me when I think one quick second is all it takes for them to be looking down and not see a pedestrian, cyclist, whomever. They're certainly not concentrating on the road or their surroundings.

How about changing the radio station or eating, or having a conversation with your passengers? All those can cause a moment's inattention. Cyclists can have moments of inattention too.

I just hate the assumption that the driver MUST be at fault in every accident involving a cyclist and MUST be punished in some horrific way.

Veronica

[crazycanuck]

Roxy-There are safety commericals here in Western Australia regarding inattentive drivers-One shows a mother trying to calm her fighting with her children in the vehicle & she runs into a motorbike. The other has a man looking at a map & he runs into a large vehicle.

If i can locate the link, i'll post it.

[jessmarimba]

I was driving yesterday and stopped at a 4-way stop - a cyclist with no helmet wearing headphones saw me stop and decided to speed up and turn left (in front of me) without stopping or signaling. Grr. And I try to be so overly accommodating to cyclists...usually...but I leaned out the window and yelled at this guy. At least I went with the assumption that he probably wouldn't stop so I hadn't already started out of the intersection. One life saved, for now.

[OakLeaf]

How about changing the radio station or eating, or having a conversation with your passengers? All those can cause a moment's inattention. Cyclists can have moments of inattention too.

I just hate the assumption that the driver MUST be at fault in every accident involving a cyclist and MUST be punished in some horrific way.

Veronica

There's a difference between a moment's inattention, vs. deliberately choosing to remove your attention from the road.

No, the automobile driver isn't always at fault, but as a general rule, people who risk killing someone ELSE when they deliberately don't pay attention (automobile drivers) choose to pay less attention than people who risk DYING when they have even a moment of inattention (motorcyclists, bicyclists and pedestrians).

You want to know what I think? I think no one should be allowed to operate a four-wheeled vehicle until they've had a motorcycle license for five years.

And I don't think there's any excuse for changing the radio station or eating, either, even though those are CHOICES (not lapses) to take attention away from the road momentarily, whereas talking on the phone and texting are CHOICES to take attention off the road for an EXTENDED period of time. It's no different from the CHOICE to get behind the wheel after a "couple of beers" or more.

An automobile or truck is a lethal weapon. Operators should be held to a HIGHER standard than the operators of firearms, since negligent operation of a firearm is most likely to result in a non-lethal injury, if any, to a single person. The "line of fire" even of a shotgun is a fairly small area compared to the front or side of an automobile that's out of control. You don't hear about someone "accidentally" killing half a dozen people with a firearm at a farmers' market.

[Veronica]

There's a difference between a moment's inattention, vs. deliberately choosing to remove your attention from the road.

But how many of these accidents are caused by that deliberate choice? Certainly not the two in the original post. Cyclists, as a group, seem to use every accident as an excuse to vilify motorists and further their own agenda, whether or not the event fits.


Veronica

[OakLeaf]

But how many of these accidents are caused by that deliberate choice? Certainly not the two in the original post.

Nothing "certain" about the little girl. Maybe it was her LEGAL fault, maybe it wasn't. The story doesn't say.

I think most, to the tune of 90%+, so-called "accidents" are caused by that deliberate choice, and I'll include at least half of single-vehicle two-wheeler "accidents" in that enumeration also. The choice is to take their attention off the road. What they choose to do with their attention instead is secondary, IMO.

They wouldn't even pick up the phone, or the hamburger, or the iPod, or whatever, if they thought that they had even a little responsibility for the deadly machine they're operating.

There are a few things that are unavoidable. An odd draft of wind blows something into your properly protected eye. A vehicle in the oncoming lane hits a pebble or piece of hardware and pops it into you, even though you're properly positioned in your lane. A stinging insect flies into your jersey.

Most so-called "accidents" are not the result of something like that.

I'm not saying I'm perfect. In my lifetime I've made very bad choices behind the wheel and behind the handlebars. Thank God none of them have been disastrous, for me or for anyone else. But I'm not so arrogant as to say that I shouldn't have been punished for them, or to suggest that I have some God-given right to live in a place that requires me to operate a vehicle because would be a full day's walk to town and back.

[Veronica]

Nothing "certain" about the little girl. Maybe it was her LEGAL fault, maybe it wasn't. The story doesn't say.

That's my point. I'm not arguing against whether or not the person at fault should be punished or how. My issue is the use of news articles to whip up a furor for or against a cause when there is nothing to back you up and the assumptions that get made based on the article.

The OP went into a rant about texting. There's nothing in either story about texting. I agree texting while driving is stupid, irresponsible and dangerous. BUT there's nothing about texting here.

Veronica

[Eden]

I'll agree that there's nothing in either article to indicate texting was in any way at fault, but overall I'm much more in agreement with Oak.

Driving is treated way to lightly in this country. It is an activity that is acutely dangerous, yet we are very accepting that one might have a "moments inattention" and have an "accident".

I don't hold with the idea that inattention = accident. Inattention = negligence. I don't think it should be a felony, but I do think it should have consequences beyond you'll feel sorry.....

For the last 15 years drivers have pretty consistently killed from 37 to 44 thousand people every year. That's as many people as breast cancer kills every year, and we have yet to whip out a ribbon campaign for car accidents. We have the dubious distinction of having the #1 automobile accident death rate per population in the developed world. Auto accidents are the #1 killer of children in the US- above all childhood illnesses - combined....

I think our laws regarding driving should be much more stringent. I think our system for getting and keeping a drivers license should be much more difficult and I think that if you ever grievously injure, maim or kill someone because you were inattentive or aggressive behind the wheel - unless it was truly an accident - you should lose your license to drive - forever.