Former Astronaut Dies After Cycling Accident

[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.

[redrhodie]

I agree with much of what has been written in this thread, from both sides, but I agree with this most of all:

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.

It's far too easy to get and keep a driver's license. I've had one driver's test in my life, when I was 16 years old. Isn't it time for a refresher course and a new test? I can't see why this isn't done every 10 or 12 years.

[zoom-zoom]

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.

Another ditto from me. If a person "accidentally" kills someone with a gun the punishment is usually more fitting. If they do so with a car it's often a slap on the wrist. A friend of a friend killed someone while drunk driving...to the best of my knowledge she served no jail time and had her driving PRIVILEGES restored just a year or two later...WTF?!

Too many view driving as a right. I'm all for the technology that prevents ANY cell phone function from a moving vehicle. My hubby pointed-out that this would prevent passengers from using the devices, too...tough sh!t, I say. No one will die from being unable to use a mobile device in a moving vehicle.

[channlluv]

Amen to that.

Whatever did we do in the back seats of cars before cell phones came out...oh wait, that came out wrong. I meant as kids, while our parents were driving.

The only thing I use my cellphone for while driving is to reference the GPS app, and then I always review all the directions before I start the trip and try to memorize the street names I need to look for.

I almost hit a teenage boy on a bike a few days ago. I was in a mixed residential/commercial neighborhood looking for an address, so I was driving slowly, thank goodness, because this 14- or 15-year-old bolts out from between parked cars on this little black BMX-looking bike with one of those really tilted back saddles -- how do they ride those things? -- and right through the street in front of me. No helmet, of course. If I had been going much faster he would have been a hood ornament.

Cyclists need to be educated about safety just as much as motorists do.

When I was little, our small town police department had this half-block-sized miniature town called Safety Town where our elementary school class -- I must have been in Kindergarten or first grade, maybe -- went to learn safety rules about where to cross the street, looking both ways, the various traffic signs, and so on. I don't remember riding my bike there on that field trip, but the mini-streets were big enough for kids to do that. Wouldn't it be great to have something similar in every community to teach kids real safety rules?

And +1 on the too-easy-to-keep-a-license point. My 84-year-old grandmother just renewed her driver's license by mail. No test. Nada. Just sign here, send the check, and look for it in the mail. I'm so glad she doesn't own a car anymore.

Roxy

[Veronica]

Are you willing to pay extra money so you can have someone to give you that driver's test every ten years?

Are you willing to pay extra taxes so that there can be an after school program to teach kids bike safety? It can't happen during school time - I don't have enough time to cover my required curriculum.

And maybe you as an individual are willing to pay for those services, but do you think society at large is?

Veronica