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Makes me think of a recent incident in Seattle where an aggressive driver in a large truck sped up and passed intentionally close to a bicyclist to intimidate them (incredibly, incredibly dangerous). This happens frequently enough as any cyclist can attest, but it was special because it was caught on camera and shared with the police. The cyclist tried to report it as attempted murder (and even the former mayor of Seattle described it as such), but the police department said, "This looks like an inconsiderate/unsafe pass. An officer would typically need to witness a violation in-progress to be able to stop the driver & confirm their ID to issue a citation." Nevermind that there was clear video of the whole thing.

About a month later a car hits and kills a cyclist and runs away. Who knows, maybe the driver was trying to do a non-prosecutable "inconsiderate/unsafe pass" that got a little too close.

https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2017/10/12/25468300/this-vi... https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/bic...

In 2003 a work colleague and I were crossing 5th ave in Seattle headed to lunch. While legally crossing, multiple cars ran the red light, collided with each other, then struck her. It was truly a miracle that she lived; frankly her being significantly overweight was likely the only reason she was saved. I was very lucky to jump back out of the way and avoided being struck.

That same year, there were two other car-pedestrian accidents at that same intersection with at least one involving the fatality of a German tourist.

When I was called by the Seattle Police Department as a witness to the accident, they did everything they could to tell me that we had been jaywalking, rather than recognizing that no, multiple cars had in fact been speeding trying to make it through the already red light. Fuck the police.

In reality, I'd say that my co-worker's life changed for the better. She lost a lot of weight, took up new activities, moved to the Bay Area, and had a new outlook.

For me, having seen all of it in moving detail, I guaranteed it resulted in undiagnosed PTSD.

In 2005 I was in Seattle watching a couple with a small child receive a citation for jaywalking because they were still in the road after the red hand stopped blinking. While the officer was writing the citation I saw the lights change and three cars ran the red, then at the beginning of the next cycle a car jumped the green to make a left before oncoming traffic. The officer didn't even look up.

Cars run red lights all over in downtown Seattle. Probably every other day I see a near-miss that if pedestrians were simply following their WALK sign and not being extra cautious they'd have gotten run down.

The most frustrating is when cars run red/yellow lights and then block the intersection so other traffic can't proceed on their greens. (Annoying when you see your bus coming but it can't get through an intersection because cars are blocking it). And the police don't care. There will literally be a police officer helping direct traffic out of a garage just feet away from vehicles that ran red lights and are now blocking intersections or trying to drive through a crosswalk as pedestrians are using it.

But boy are they eager to issue jaywalking tickets to pedestrians.

When we were kids, my brother got chastised by the police for getting hit by a car while riding his bike 'dangerously' along the non-stopping direction at a 2-way stop.

It's a pretty good way to impress upon a kid that the police are operating on some other end than simply enforcing the law.

Almost got hit in downtown Mountain View of all places over the summer when a car ran a red and we had entered the crosswalk after the pedestrian signal turned to walk.

It's insane that a driver would try to run a red in an area teeming with pedestrians in the middle of the day.

While cyclists have the right to use the road and I don't want to see anyone hurt, I don't understand the apparent lack of sense of self-preservation it takes to cycle on a busy road. Bottom line, if a cyclist becomes entangled with a 4,000+ pound vehicle, it doesn't matter who's at fault: the cyclist loses.

I myself only cycle on low-traffic streets or dedicated bike paths.

Am grandparent poster. I also ride and race road bicycles and that means on busy public roads, too. We are aware of the bottom line, as you say. Cyclists will lose a fight with a car or even a motorcycle and there's no two ways about it.

But, while I dunno about other people, I'm not going to let risk prevent me from living my life. I'm going to ride my bike, consequences be damned! However, I probably have what most people consider an unhealthy tolerance for risk, so I'm not a particularly good person to sample.

That used to be me, however, if you go fast enough with a bike, those low-traffic streets (likely more turns/intersections) or bike paths slow you down considerably. There is a happy medium (big enough road either with separated or minimal traffic), but not always available.

Honestly, I simply can't wait for AI to dominate driving and remove increasingly distracted humans from the loop.

This is why when I need to enter a lane of traffic on my bike, I make sure I'm right in the middle of it. I'd rather stay to one side so cars (or other two-wheeled commuters) don't have to fully change lanes to get around me, but I've had plenty of experiences like the one in the video and I've decided that it's better to be safe than sorry.

In Orange County, on average one person a week dies from getting hit as a cyclist. Knowing that, it's the true road warriors who risk riding on the main roads. I use the beach boardwalk which is pedestrian only and it goes 30 miles roundtrip. That's plenty.

What that driver did should be treated the same as pointing a gun at someone's head. It's a threat of death.

Agreed. Having been run over by a large truck while biking to work changed plenty of things for me. Aside from being the living example of the 'bus factor' on my team, convalescing was a huge change in the way I normally do things, not being able to bike, climb, play with my son, or even just tidy up was initially maddening, but ultimately valuable. Also knowing that the social contract is real, that first responders were there in five minutes to get me out from under the truck and to the hospital, surgeons managed to bolt most of me back together, and people from all walks of life were willing to help hold doors and so on for someone in a wheelchair. I'm back on the bike now, and I do feel much, much more conscious of how little it would take for someone driving distractedly again to take me out for good.

Glad to hear you've recovered and you're still riding. I agree. Every time I get on the bike I think to myself "someone could kill me this time". It definitely makes me more appreciative of my life and also more cognizant of my mortality.

You ain't kidding. Winter bicycle riding is an eye opener: it's crystal clear how almost every driver has that small glowing rectangle in their hand or lap as you go by.

I pity the motorcyclist commuters: all the same vulnerabilities as a pedal bike but without the growing safety focus (bike lanes, etc). I figure e-bikes will take over for those people soon enough.

I am somewhat skeptical about stop light cameras as a way to improve safety; however, I would be interested to know if we could automatically fine drivers who are caught on camera using their phones.

My rules for riding a motorcycle:

1. Everyone is trying to kill you.

2. Anyone who isn't actively trying to kill you cannot see you.

3. The day you forgo a piece of gear is the day you need it.

So far a year of lane splitting in San Francisco and I'm collision-free.

Yeahhh I go by that, too. Except I only learned that post-collision.

It is a bit extreme but I completely agree. If you're driving a car that has the capability to easily maim and kill (sometimes without even noticing!) then one must take responsibility for that power.

It boggles the mind that someone would be willing to trade the life of a stranger to send a text message.

I was in a serious car accident when I was a young man -- both legs broken and, more severe, a shattered L3 vertebra -- and this rings true for me. It's a difficult feeling to relate, fully, but what basically happened afterward is that this previously abstract notion of a "car accident" irrevocably crystallized into something that actually can and does happen and so riding in a car with other people for whom this possibility remains abstract is now almost unbearable.

Sorry that befell you. Hope it hasn't unduly impacted your life. Indeed the possibility doesn't even occur to most people. It's gotten so bad that I will literally get out of a car if the driver picks up his or her phone.

When I move into an apartment I like to disable all the smoke detectors in the building and lock all the emergency exits. You know, I like to ride on the wild side, and I like to create the conditions for everyone else to be at risk of accidentally killing people.

I consider anyone who starts the fire guilty of at least manslaughter though, and if they were distracted when it happened it is definitely murder. They literally forget that fire is inherently extremely dangerous with all their ever improving safety gear. So I like to keep it real and make sure that we don’t have it.

Would you please not post like this?

I almost banned you, because https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15883519 and other past comments also broke the guidelines, but you've posted plenty of civil, substantive comments as well. Please stick to those only.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

What about mechanical breakdowns? Some of those are down to negligent maintenance, but sometimes stuff just breaks. Wouldn't those be considered accidents? For instance, I've seen a tire come off of a truck before and go rolling across the road. Maybe it was negligent maintenance, maybe it wasn't. But I acknowledge that there is a possibility that stuff happens that is nobody's fault.

Mechanical breakdowns that cause an accident are extremely rare today. The technology in your breaks are amazing. If you can also still steer, you have everything you need.

In the future-present however, with computers running everything, I wouldn't be surprised if this changed < break systems getting "confused" and over-ridding user input.

This. Something like 6% of insurance claims (I forget where I read that). When you filter out all the ones without injury or property damage to anyone else's property it really isn't much at all.

Yes I understand that. From my comment: > __Some may be__, but "accident" implies that there's no fault.

Those things do happen. For example, I recently saw a video where a big rig carrying cement crashed into a line of cars due to brake failure. But those are, I would guess, a small percentage of total collisions.