A phrase you’ll often hear connected with these sorts of incidents is the victim(s) were in the “wrong place at the wrong time”. Well it seems that the wrong place is anyplace; and the wrong time is anytime morning noon or night.
About a week ago, Pima County “Administrator Chuck Huckelberry experienced life-threatening injuries after a driver of a car made an unsafe lane change and collided with another vehicle that caused it to careen into Huckelberry as he rode his bike…” tucson.com Incidentally, the driver was apparently charged with a 28-672, a criminal misdemeanor; the news story refers only to a “citation” which while true isn’t the usual nomenclature.
So then we have some more recent ridiculous #trafficviolence …
11/6/2021 Saturday afternoon 3:15PM. A driver drove up on sidewalk and killed a man in Phoenix.
Man killed after hit by truck at south Phoenix bus stop
PHOENIX — A man was killed after he was hit by a truck at a south Phoenix bus stop on Saturday afternoon… The Phoenix Police Department responded to the scene near 16th Street and Southern Avenue around 3:15 p.m. for reports of a collision. Officers learned that a truck pulling a trailer hit the bus stop where a man was waiting. Javier Saavedra, 64, pronounced dead on the scene, police said… Police have arrested the driver of the truck, 24-year-old Brandon Seymour. He was evaluated for impairment and later booked into the Maricopa County Jail.
9/24/2021 Friday (evening?) And in case you missed it a few weeks ago an unnamed driver killed a person (plus more injured) at a bus stop when she “hopped the median” and crossed over all 3 lanes on Dobson near Broadway in Mesa.
Mesa PD: 1 person dead, 2 injured after truck crashes into bus stop
Police say witnesses told them a red Toyota Tacoma was traveling south on Dobson Road and then hopped the median into the northbound lanes. The truck crossed all three lanes of traffic and hits three people sitting at the bus stop near Broadway Road… Two people at the bus stop were transported to the hospital, one with minor injuries and the other with serious injuries. The third person was pronounced dead at the scene… The driver of the truck was also transported to the hospital, however, her injuries are unknown at this time…
Annoyingly, MesaPD refers to an “accident”? #CRASHnotaccident, please.
Just the wrong place at the wrong time. #visionzero would have speeds slowed down to mitigate the damage done by drivers.
We are confronted over and over by the fact that you can not mix high speed vehicular traffic, that is 35 mph and greater, with pedestrians and bicyclists. Cars are going to crash. Drivers are inattentive, or under the influence, or there is just bad luck.
The focus has been on the victims. “They were in the wrong place at the wrong time.” No, cars are death machines, they are the cause of every fatality or serious injury. Stronger regulation of cars, meaning slower speeds and a fundamental change in our rules of the road – giving bicyclists similar protections as pedestrians, is the only answer. That is were ever developed nation has arrived – except in North America.