Re: House arrest after killing cyclist in hit and run.

On 3/1/2025 9:06 AM, AMuzi wrote:

On 2/28/2025 9:05 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote:

... as we all know, the present situation is closest to "I didn't see
him!" or "He came out of nowhere!" followed by at most a slap on the wrist. And any imperfection in the pedestrian's behavior is a coupon for no motorist penalty at all.
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Locally, about six months ago we had a young, well loved, well respected music teacher, church organist killed by a car when walking across a street. About a week ago, another young man was killed crossing the plaza-infested five lane at 6 AM. Details on the first are sketchy to me - it sounds like he was in a legal crosswalk - but cops said the latter was "not crossing in a designated crosswalk" so the motorist is off completely free. And in a different city, a young woman I know well was knocked to the ground and injured while crossing in a crosswalk with a green "walk" signal. ...
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I'd like a law that makes motorists think "Holy shit, there's a pedestrian. I'd better be _really_ careful."
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 No one discounts those or other tragedies such as that of my friend Jeff Archer:
 https://www.wbtv.com/story/32500249/popular-owner-of-local-bike-shop- killed-after-struck-by-car/
 But we have a few hundred years of statutes and tort case law (i.e., this is not new ground for humans), and although errors do exist, the system works fairly well in principle.

Our disagreement seems to be the definition of "works fairly well." I see the laws and attitudes as generating lots of societal harm. Examples are not just the count of non-motorist deaths and injuries, but the dissuasion of non-motorized travel. That leads to huge reductions in exercise and activity and their health benefits. It leads to fewer people out interacting socially, reduced community engagement, fewer opportunities for friendship, etc. It also contributes toward the promotion and construction of terribly designed segregated facilities for bicyclists, and occasionally to laws mandating their use.
It's certainly not the only factor driving the motoring dependence, but I think its a central one.

We can agree that legal and criminal responsibility is all too frequently passed over by weak enforcement/sentencing. This is a significant and untoward trend but there are better remedies than punishing the innocent.

:-) I'm thinking of a parallel with your frequent complaint about enforcement of other laws. Legally and practically, "innocent" often means "We couldn't convict him because the judge wouldn't allow this important evidence" or "He could afford a lawyer who got him released on the third appeal" - even though "We all know he did it."
Sometimes hundreds of years of statutes and tort case law put us in bad positions.
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- Frank Krygowski