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From: Frank Krygowski <frkrygow@sbcglobal.net>
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.tech
Subject: Re: House arrest after killing cyclist in hit and run.
Date: Sat, 1 Mar 2025 13:24:31 -0500
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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.
>>
>> 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. ...
>>
>> I'd like a law that makes motorists think "Holy shit, there's a 
>> pedestrian. I'd better be _really_ careful."
>>
> 
> 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.



-- 
- Frank Krygowski