You'll know if you read this blog regularly that I have very little tolerance for the "blame the driver for everything" attitude of the police. Especially when it comes to pedestrians walking in traffic.
Well finally there's a good news story for those of us who have a self-preservation instinct. Scottsdale police are pushing for charges to be dropped against a driver who hit a pedestrian and her child in a crosswalk. Of course the story that the pedestrian gave was that the driver jumped a red light and mowed her down at speed. In reality things were a little different. Fortunately, there was a red light camera at the intersection and the video shows what actually happened. The crosswalk lights went red, she decided to run across the road and when the traffic lights went green, she was obscured from the view of the driver because she was running in front of a larger vehicle to his left. The driver rightly went on his green light only to be presented with a mother and stroller running in front of him.
Now I hate to come across as insensitive, but frankly in this video, I see the pedestrian getting everything she deserves. And I'm wonderfully happy that for once the driver isn't being blamed for something that was clearly not his fault. Perhaps this mother should have thought twice before playing in traffic. She clearly doesn't care for her own life, much less her child's. In fact, I'd have her arrested for attempting to pervert the course of justice, and wanton child endangerment now the video shows the truth of what happened.
The full story is on the Scottsdale ABC15 news site:
Story
3 comments:
Stuff like this is why I hate California's law which states that in ANY situation where a vehicle hits a pedestrian, the driver is automatically at fault. Even if the pedestrian was jaywalking. Even if the pedestrian was the one doing stupid, illegal, dangerous things, if I hit them, *I'M* the one looking at jail time.
And yes, pedestrians know this, and take advantage of it to not check where the (expletive) they're going. I'd love to have it reformed such that the pedestrian has priority *when crossing in accordance with all signalling devices*, and if jaywalking they give up the protections of that.
While I agree with you partly...did you notice that the SUV driver just keeps on going? No indication that they slammed on their brakes or anything, even after they ran over the child.
I noticed that. He was slowing down towards the end of the video but given where the kid hit the car it's entirely possible he didn't even realize what had happened. I'm not saying the SUV driver was right. I'm just glad he wasn't blamed.
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