| Oct 06 |
As ‘accident’ victims, pedestrians, cyclists are second class citizens in Texas
The driver “lost control” — a common excuse for bad driving — and veered onto the shoulder, killing the two people. No charges have been filed in the tragedy. Nor have charges been filed in the case of David Mollenauer, a San Antonio Symphony musician who was hit by a car while on his bike and left for dead earlier this year. Mollenauer survived, and witnesses even got the car’s license number. Yet again, no charges have been filed, even though the driver’s identity is known. Some say that’s because Texas treats cyclists and pedestrians as second-class citizens. If a car strikes property and damages it, then its driver is legally liable for negligence. If a car strikes a person in a motorcycle accident, bicycle accident or pedestrian accident, the car’s driver may face no penalty at all — even in a hit and run! |
An item in today’s 
| Sep 22 |
A fatal traffic accident driver ‘lost’ control–or surrendered it?
The resulting wreckage might be blamed on “lost control” in a news report, but a wreck’s cause, in many cases, is that a driver gave up — rather than “lost” — proper control of his or her vehicle by willfully indulging in unsafe behavior. |
Each day you hear or read it in news reports: A driver “lost control” of a vehicle, causing a deadly car accident crash. But apart from slick roads and sudden mechanical malfunctions, just how did the driver “lose” control? Or, did the driver not truly lose control, but rather surrender it — by driving too fast, driving while drunk, driving while cell calling or texting or otherwise failing to pay proper attention to the road?| Apr 13 |
Drunk driving robs another life: Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart
But no, that number is still unacceptable. And any progress we’ve made is still tempered by the grim fact that so many traffic deaths come from one particular source of galling carnage: drunk drivers. No matter how much we strive, exhort and pray, drunk drivers are slaughtering innocents on America’s streets and freeways. |
Yes, America had fewer traffic fatalities in 2008 than in any year since 1961. Yes, it’s heartening that while 37,313 people died this way last year, that was 9.1 per cent fewer than the year before.