Wednesday, July 16, 2008

OMG I just killed a man

The boston.com headline says it all: "Hit-and-run driver allegedly texting."

Extra irony value provided by auto insurance ad on the boston.com home page.

(Click for larger size image.)

2 comments:

A said...

omg this is so bad in so many ways. He also didn't have presence of mind to even call 911!!! Too busy on the text?

I'll bet dimes to dollars he was on a street that allows speeds of more than 25mph (or that he was doing greater than that).

Walk Boston has some legislation before the house House Bill 4635, An Act Relative to Speed Limits to lower the state "default" speed limit on local roads to 25--as it's less likely to be fatal to cyclists and pedestrians. Call your rep now!!

Adam said...

I'm not sure I see how speed limits are relevant to this story. We're talking about gross negligence, and the fact that he isn't on trial for TWD (texting while driving)

I do see some value to legislation which makes lowers the default or makes it possible for cities to lower speed limits -- 30 is usually far to fast -- but I remember seeing legislation like this many times before. There's almost always something on the docket for either a lower default or letting cities set their own default speed limits, and it never gets to a vote. How can we make this bill different? Is there anything to be learned from the previous bills?

I'm not a big believer in drivers heeding signs (or, in this case, just knowing the implicit regulations). In reality, all the legislation would do is enable more enforcement and higher tickets, if local police choose to do enforcement. Problem is, that doesn't scale well for local streets. There are too many streets and too few cops, I think, to provide a real deterrent.