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Comment by magicalhippo | Hacker News Reader

> I wonder how much of this is due to distracted driving because of smart phones. I would bet it's more than we care to admit.

Not just drivers. Plenty of pedestrians which just walk straight across the road with their eyes firmly fixed on their screens and earbuds protecting their ears from the sounds of the world around them.

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People should pay attention to the world around them, but keep in mind that the pedestrians aren't the people doing the activity that causes the damage.

In the same way that if I stick my hand in the table saw, it's not me causing the damage.

Of course drivers who can't pay attention to the things they should pay attention to don't really deserve to drive. But physics is physics, and there's a limit to how fast a driver can react and a car in motion can stop. And a lot of pedestrians at least here seem to not keep that in mind when roaming about.

I know I'm somewhat of an outlier but I really don't like wearing earphones when I'm out and about. I don't even like walking in the woods with them in. I certainly don't like wearing them anywhere there's traffic or other potential hazards. Just makes me feel cut-off from the environment.

If you hit someone hard enough to kill them then you were definitely speeding and/or not paying attention. Even going 45mph, which is the highest speed road around me where you'd encounter a crosswalk wile driving, you still have plenty of time to slam on the brakes and bleed speed to a nonfatal speed. Probably takes 1 second to go from 45mph to 20mph.

When drivers kill people in my town, it seems like it's mostly hit and runs which should give you a hint on who was at fault.

A car going at 1mph can kill you. Hit and runs, speeding... that's something else entirely.

Oh yes, forgot about all those cars killed by pedestrians.

You are legally allowed to drive over a pedestrian if he does that, right?

Last I checked from CA SWITRS data, that was not the case. Car/bike, Car/pedestrian collisions had cars be at fault in at least 2/3rds of the time.

At least where I'm from, cars by default at fault if they hit a pedestrian. I'm not saying they account for the majority, but I do see a lot of very close calls on a regular basis due to pedestrians behaving as if they're alone in the world.

At least where I'm from...

Out of curiosity, where is that? This seems like a much better policy than I've seen...

That'd be Norway.

That's because the other party made a decision (maybe uninformed, but nevertheless) to command a two-ton killing machine when there's no need for it.

In the same way that the pedestrian who carelessly walks into the road without sensing their surroundings makes a decision (maybe uninformed, but nevertheless) to step in front of said two-ton killing machine.

The difference here is that you are framing the driver as the victim, when it's just the opposite.

How well can you hear the outside world from your car? Should all drivers be required to drive convertibles without stereos so they can hear the sounds of the world around them?

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