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Comment by michaelt | Hacker News Reader

  You're completely ignoring the potential monetary damages.

If there's a car accident that closes the road, it's frustrating for everyone involved. But if someone's crash means I'm late for a vital sales meeting and I lose a multi-million-dollar contract, I wouldn't blame them for my consequential losses.

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If someone causes a car accident because of their gross negligence, they'll most likely face criminal charges.

But even if they do, they won't (and shouldn't) be held liable for any subsequent things that happen in your life because you were delayed in traffic, consequent to that accident.

Did I ever suggest that?

You should do that though: it would allow us to know the complete cost of the accident so we can allocate the correct number of resources to preventing it.

Should the complete cost of the accident include monetary losses from people who had no plans for dealing with unexpected delays? Or to put it another way; Lets say you're driving across a bridge with your laptop in your car and you get hit causing you to drive through the rail and into the ocean. Should the 'complete cost of the accident' change based on whether or not you were smart enough to make backups?

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