A van driver who killed a cyclist after failing to see him on the road, despite the 54-year-old riding with two rear lights, has been handed a suspended 10-month prison sentence.Graham Nash was riding his bike on a single carriageway section of the A65 Settle bypass in Craven, North Yorkshire on 6 August 2024, when ... Read more
We can blame the driver and the government, both of them.
I think of you drive a big heavy thing around, you have a moral obligation to fucking pay close attention so you don’t accidentally kill someone. And if you’re incapable of driving that carefully, sell your car already. I think that’s basic morality.
I think we also need better infrastructure and much stronger traffic laws so that drivers have legal incentive to fucking drive carefully like they already should have been doing but many are not because they don’t give a fuck.
I agree, a car is a loaded gun. If you had someone walking around accidentally pointing their loaded gun at people because they were not paying attention to where it was pointing, no one would be surprised when he accidentally kills someone. A rational person would recognize the negligence. But when people consistently drive carelessly others act like it was a random accident when someone dies. No MF, their negligence killed someone.
Not only that, but since people have to take tests to get licenses to drive a car, that means that everyone who drives in public is supposed to be driving at a high level.
Imagine if the government did the right thing and took away people’s licenses whenever they drove unsafely, and people had to start again from scratch and take a driving test, with escalating difficulty and focus on safety, to get another license, and that the testing facilities would be controlled so that if they passed unsafe drivers, they’d have to get different testers and so on.
And then imagine if people knew what a giant pain in the ass it is to drive unsafely. Losing your license and having to take a harder test than last time. Probably it wouldn’t be too many infractions before they wouldn’t even let you try to get a license.
That sort of thing is why you have licenses where people are required to pass tests.
You can absolutely blame the driver. I’m a cyclist but I drive too. I’ve never felt like infrastructure has put me in a position where I am forced to kill a a cyclist. There needs to me more strict testing for drivers and fewer people should be allowed to drive.
I don’t see this as a failure of the driver or cyclist. It’s a failure of infrastructure and policy.
This is why separate bicycle infrastructure exists in civilized countries. It’s better and safer for both drivers and cyclists.
If you want to blame someone, blame government. They know this, they want to sell cars because that’s what they are paid to do.
We can blame the driver and the government, both of them.
I think of you drive a big heavy thing around, you have a moral obligation to fucking pay close attention so you don’t accidentally kill someone. And if you’re incapable of driving that carefully, sell your car already. I think that’s basic morality.
I think we also need better infrastructure and much stronger traffic laws so that drivers have legal incentive to fucking drive carefully like they already should have been doing but many are not because they don’t give a fuck.
I agree, a car is a loaded gun. If you had someone walking around accidentally pointing their loaded gun at people because they were not paying attention to where it was pointing, no one would be surprised when he accidentally kills someone. A rational person would recognize the negligence. But when people consistently drive carelessly others act like it was a random accident when someone dies. No MF, their negligence killed someone.
Not only that, but since people have to take tests to get licenses to drive a car, that means that everyone who drives in public is supposed to be driving at a high level.
Imagine if the government did the right thing and took away people’s licenses whenever they drove unsafely, and people had to start again from scratch and take a driving test, with escalating difficulty and focus on safety, to get another license, and that the testing facilities would be controlled so that if they passed unsafe drivers, they’d have to get different testers and so on.
And then imagine if people knew what a giant pain in the ass it is to drive unsafely. Losing your license and having to take a harder test than last time. Probably it wouldn’t be too many infractions before they wouldn’t even let you try to get a license.
That sort of thing is why you have licenses where people are required to pass tests.
You can absolutely blame the driver. I’m a cyclist but I drive too. I’ve never felt like infrastructure has put me in a position where I am forced to kill a a cyclist. There needs to me more strict testing for drivers and fewer people should be allowed to drive.