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Comment by thelastgallon | Hacker News Reader

> risks of people running into them

Curious how people run into solar panels. I wonder how many ER visits say "I ran into a solar panel"

People drive into buildings all the time. Like it's actually like over a hundred per day sort of thing in the US. Happens really frequently here in Canada as well.

If you include stuff like stop signs, light poles, mailboxes, and fences its probably in the several thousands. Fixed object collisions are super common.

Even animals (with significantly smaller brains) know how to avoid stationary structures (and even moving things that are trying to eat them!).

Where are ya'll from that people are running into stationary structures all the time? If people have an epidemic of running into stationary things, wouldn't there be a 100x problem of them running into moving things - like cars, trucks, trains, airplanes?

Regardless, why is it okay for people to run into any stationary structure but not okay for people to run into structures that hold solar panels? Or is there some effort to remove ALL stationary structures because of this problem?

Probably ya'll need to update the driver's license exam. First, in the written exam, include rules against hitting stationary structures, and quiz them on it before issuing the learner's permit. Then also test for it during the road test. If they can't avoid a stationary structure, perhaps fail them?

In the US, this is not a problem unless you are drunk. When you are driving drunk, you are violating the law anyway.

We don't know the state of the multiple drivers to cause these posts, or for the drivers to run into the corresponding posts, but they're a) in the US (Atlanta, Oakland, and Brookfield, CT) and b) it sounds like it's happened more than a few times.

https://old.reddit.com/r/cars/comments/myfroy/today_the_14th...

https://old.reddit.com/r/HomeImprovement/comments/5da1w1/bes...

https://i95rock.com/how-to-avoid-a-car-crash-as-you-approach...

> it's happened more than a few times.

There are 2.75 - 4 billion buildings on this planet. Something will happen a few times or more than few times. Sometimes asteroids hit the planet and most species go extinct.

If you put solar panels in parking lots, you're adding a lot of posts to the parking lot to hold them that weren't there before. People are going to crash into those posts in parking lots often.

For example, light posts constantly get bumped in parking lots.

To hold your solar panels you need really strong posts that can both hold them and get bumped into by vehicles. Especially in the USA where you have giant vehicles & tight parking spaces.

This all adds to the cost before you even get to electricity storage & transmission.

Drivers hit structures all the time.

and? Why is it a problem with solar panels?

More expensive and urgent to repair than a light pole.

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