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Shockingly light punishment for speeding Mercedes driver who killed couple and their babies at SF bus stop (nypost.com)
submitted 7 months ago by to c/fuckcars@lemmy.world
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[–] 10 points 7 months ago* (7 children)

In this case though, there was really nothing about the street or traffic design that was the problem. This is actually insane.

The intersection near where this happened is quite a cluster fuck. But not in the direction that the driver was driving NOR where the family was standing And the driver was going so fast it literally obliterated a steel bus stop. Like ripped it out of the ground.

They've changed the intersection, but traffic design had nothing and will do nothing for what happened in this instance.

Fuck cars. Yet again the best way to kill someone is to do it with a car and call it an accident. It's actually insane. (I'm not saying this was intentional, but the driver should never be behind a wheel again for starters, and this does need to be punished more than this farce.)

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  • [–] 9 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    Yea, 3 year suspended license. I'm sure when she can drive again at 83, she'll be a better driver. Honestly the standards (or lack thereof) is insane. People should be regularly tested regardless of age to see if they're competent to drive.

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  • [–] 7 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    there was really nothing about the street or traffic design that was the problem

    Someone died. There is something wrong with the design.

    The driver was going so fast

    The street was designed, actively or passively, to allow the driver to travel too fast.

    it literally obliterate a steel bus stop

    I dont know about this specific bus stop; but in my quick search, the different types of SF bus stops i saw all had sheer bolts. That bus stop may have been literally designed to sheer away from the pavement to reduce damage to cars and/or surrounding infrastructure, an interesting design choice based on what can be inside them.

    traffic design had nothing and will do nothing for what happened in this instance

    Check out "killed by a traffic engineer" and/or "confessions of a recovering engineer." It might feel like there was nothing wrong with the design; but as with all engineering choices sacrifices and balancing choices needed to be made. This street chose driver comfort and speed over human lives. It may have taken a long time for those small errors to accumulate and align for a death, but they were omnipresent.

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

    I hear you. I am 100% an advocate for better street design.

    What I'm trying to tell you that it's more complicated than you're making it out to be. Especially in this specific instance. And yes, it may have been made to sheer off but that doesn't really change they were going I believe 70+ in a resedential area. There are muni tracks in the middle of the road which makes it quite wide and it's a big long curve.

    Honestly and truly I believe the driver must have had a momentary old person 'black out' just slammed on the gas and was essentially unconscious. We'll never truly know. Putting up a concrete barrier could have prevented this. But I would never look at the exact stretch and direction of road and think, yes, this is going to be a hazard. Obviously it was and needs to change, but my point is that the driver here is at fault and should never be behind a wheel again.

    The city immediately after this made a bunch of changes to the area. Changes I imagine they'd been wanting to make for a while. But the changes never impacted the direction / route this car was going. So that makes no sense to me. They fixed nothing that would have changed what happened here.

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  • [–] 4 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    Thats fair, and there are some odd things to me as an outsider.

    What does it mean the licence is suspended 3 years? Does she just get it back after 3 years? That's ridiculous and just increases skill fade. Assuming 3 years is the correct punishement; should it not be a removal of licence with the ability to restart at the beginning of the graduated licence after 3 years?

    Also, there was ~2 years from incident to sentencing. I guess that's a reasonable delay for a case this complex? But is this person just driving around in the interim? Are there a bunch of people jsut driving around awaiting trial and or sentencing?

    This isn't meant to just shit on the Californian system, in my own town of Kingston, ON; a driver ran over and killed a cyclist with witnesses; but the police just didn't file the charges in time so there was zero consequence. https://www.thewhig.com/feature/kingston-ontario-cyclist-fatality-police

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago

    It's I believe insane. They were able to keep driving while awaiting sentencing, and it just gets reinstated once the suspension is up. I thought it couldn't be this on both counts, and was wrong. God things with cars are so fucking insane.

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