Car Crash Thread

urban_dilettante · PostOct 08, 2020#1262020-10-08T23:05+00:00

^ research shows an increase in pedestrian fatalities related to SUVs (due to where they impact the body). also, momentum = mass * velocity so a more massive vehicle will do more damage to a storefront than a less massive vehicle at the same speed (impulse = energy delivered in very short period of time = change in momentum).

i mean, fine. then people over 60 should have to retest every so many years. but, as with guns, devices that can easily kill people need to be regulated. i don't have a lot of sympathy for the "i don't want to be bothered" argument. lots and lots of people are dying. i'm sure the testing/licensing process could be improved if it were taken seriously.

quincunx · PostOct 08, 2020#1272020-10-08T23:08+00:00

I don't see states getting tough on elderly drivers. There's too many places where driving is compulsory. I predict the irony of their (and their parents') complicity in building places where driving is compulsory will be lost.

urban_dilettante · PostOct 08, 2020#1282020-10-08T23:09+00:00

^ oh, agreed. and auto manufacturer lobbyists would never allow it.

sc4mayor · PostOct 08, 2020#1292020-10-08T23:36+00:00

urban_dilettante wrote: ↑
Oct 08, 2020
^ research shows an increase in pedestrian fatalities related to SUVs (due to where they impact the body). also, momentum = mass * velocity so a more massive vehicle will do more damage to a storefront than a less massive vehicle at the same speed (impulse = energy delivered in very short period of time = change in momentum).

i mean, fine. then people over 60 should have to retest every so many years. but, as with guns, devices that can easily kill people need to be regulated. i don't have a lot of sympathy for the "i don't want to be bothered" argument. lots and lots of people are dying. i'm sure the testing/licensing process could be improved if it were taken seriously.

Point taken on the SUVs.

I'm not looking for your sympathy and I certainly never said cars shouldn't be regulated. I just don't think bogging down the license offices is going to make a noticeable change. Better enforcement would do more than taking a test every some number of years. Doesn't matter how often you attempt to test or train them...as long as people are going to speed, use their phones, eat, shave, put on makeup, etc, while they drive...people are going to die. I once saw a woman behind the wheel reading a book on Highway 40...you can't test that kind of stupidity out of people.

urban_dilettante · PostOct 09, 2020#1302020-10-09T00:01+00:00

^ once again, it's not either/or. enforcement addresses compliance. testing addresses competence. and, look, i'm not attacking you personally but by "no sympathy" i mean that the law should not give a damn about your convenience or that you don't feel like testing every 10 years. the law should care about minimizing deaths and environmental destruction. so IMO whatever it takes. driving is not a human right.

sc4mayor · PostOct 09, 2020#1312020-10-09T01:01+00:00

^ Once again, I’m not saying it is an either/or lol. Never said anything about driving being a “human right” or some bullsh*t either. It’s like you think I’m saying people should be able to get behind the wheel with no regulation or testing which isn’t even remotely close to what I’m saying. Plenty of people can feign competence long enough to pass a test which is why I don’t think frequent testing is going to bring some magical reduction in deaths.

I drive for a living. I’m not convinced a few extra tests every so many years is going to change any of the selfish ***** I see out on the roads all the time. Especially after what happened to me last month. THAT DOESN’T MEAN I’M SAYING EVERYTHING HAS TO STAY EXACTLY THE WAY IT IS NOW. Obviously we can and should improve upon lots, in the licensing process, enforcement, road design, etc.

sc4mayor · PostOct 09, 2020#1322020-10-09T01:14+00:00

I do think someone being made to take a drivers test after every traffic ticket they get or accident they get into is a good idea and would probably help with some self enforcement too.

urban_dilettante · PostOct 09, 2020#1332020-10-09T02:58+00:00

^ it seems very much like you're saying that periodic testing isn't necessary because it won't solve enforcement issues, and i'm saying that testing and enforcement address two different problems. enforcement is meant to compel compliance among drivers who are nominally capable of driving safely but don't, whereas testing checks whether a person has lost the ability to drive safely (either due to mental degradation, loss of eyesight, forgetting what traffic signs mean, whatever). i agreed with you that testing behind a wheel probably isn't necessary until after age 60 or so, but i would rather it happen before somebody gets killed than as a response to somebody getting killed. and it wouldn't hurt for everyone to be forced to re-learn what a damn "yield" sign means every so often, or how to use a turn signal, or how to merge onto a highway, even if it doesn't involve an actual driving test.

STLCityMike · PostOct 09, 2020#1342020-10-09T05:22+00:00

Being honest here, we are less likely to follow rules (law) when we know it isn't enforced. Our city needs to traffic department to enforce speeding, red light adherence, parking etc. It baffles me that law enforcement patrols the city yet we expect citizens to report vehicles abandoned after accidents. Collectively we care, or we continue to leave eye sores or messes. We live in a county that values cleanliness but do nothing to make that an attribute for our city.

kipfilet · PostOct 09, 2020#1352020-10-09T16:36+00:00

urban_dilettante wrote: ↑
Oct 08, 2020
^ all the more reason to ban SUVs and require people to retest for their drivers license every 5 or 10 years. we have people driving around in deadly weapons who aren't competent. and let's be real: one's foot doesn't "slip" off the brake and subsequently hold down the accelerator long enough to jump a curb and plow through a storefront. jesus... cars are a f*cking plague.

Where I am from you need to retest every year after you turn 70.

urban_dilettante · PostOct 09, 2020#1362020-10-09T17:30+00:00

^ clearly you're from someplace that hates freedom.

quincunx · PostOct 10, 2020#1372020-10-10T00:28+00:00

Stl PR- Tackling America’s ‘Silent Epidemic’ Of Pedestrian Deaths — In St. Louis And Beyond

https://news.stlpublicradio.org/show/st ... ian-deaths

framer · PostOct 10, 2020#1382020-10-10T03:48+00:00

^There were two more pedestrian deaths in St. Louis in just the last couple of days. One was a hit-and-run; in the other one the driver stayed at the scene.

quincunx · PostOct 10, 2020#1392020-10-10T22:36+00:00

Stltoday - Woman who died after being hit by a car is remembered as a joyful, dedicated mother

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/cri ... 6287a.html

chris fuller · PostOct 13, 2020#1402020-10-13T14:42+00:00

Exactly How Far U.S. Street Safety Has Fallen Behind Europe, in Three Bombshell Charts
https://usa.streetsblog.org/2020/10/10/ ... ll-charts/

framer · PostOct 13, 2020#1412020-10-13T15:15+00:00

I've noticed that urban bicyclists in Europe generally don't wear helmets, while those in the US generally do.

newstl2020 · PostOct 14, 2020#1422020-10-14T01:03+00:00

framer wrote: ↑
Oct 13, 2020
I've noticed that urban bicyclists in Europe generally don't wear helmets, while those in the US generally do.

Big Helmet in the pockets of our elected officials. SMDH.

quincunx · PostOct 14, 2020#1432020-10-14T03:34+00:00

Stltoday- Police: Victim killed after car crash, shooting identified as Black Jack man

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/cri ... the-latest

PostOct 19, 2020#1442020-10-19T03:11+00:00

KMOV- -Car driver hits Urgent Care employee, crashes into building in West County

https://www.kmov.com/news/car-driver-hi ... f325d.html

PostOct 19, 2020#1452020-10-19T16:14+00:00

KSDK - Driver charged after hitting, killing urgent care employee and crashing into Ballwin building

https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/crime ... 6e0eef45f9

sc4mayor · PostOct 19, 2020#1462020-10-19T17:27+00:00

^ Huffing inhalants while he drove down Clarkson Road...good lord.
https://www.stltoday.com/tncms/auth/rem ... m%3Dsocial

eee123 · PostOct 20, 2020#1472020-10-20T23:13+00:00

U. City man files lawsuit after wife fatally struck by SUV at Olivette Starbucks

The suit alleges unsafe sidewalks and parking spaces, and contends there were no barriers in front of Starbucks' glass storefront. It also cites a similar crash years ago in which a woman reportedly accelerated backward from a parking space and crashed into the front of the same Starbucks.

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/cri ... e-breaking

Are there strip malls with barriers between parking and storefronts? Doesn't look like there were even the basic parking blocks here, but how much difference would that have made?

symphonicpoet · PostOct 21, 2020#1482020-10-21T05:12+00:00

^Ronnie's has some selectively, as I recall. Planters at strategic locations. I think also the newer Bernadette Center in Columbia. Not sure if they were intended as barriers to prevent car overruns, or if they're just there to deal with site issues. Or even for pedestrian safety reasons. (To prevent falls, say.) But yeah, there are some. Not sure how common it is off the top of my head. But it's not unheard of. And bollards are becoming more common for the purpose as well. (Particularly as a retrofit after a car ventilates a building.)

quincunx · PostOct 21, 2020#1492020-10-21T12:10+00:00

Shame businesses have to pay another tax in the form of bollards to protect the buildings from jaydrivers. Just another cost of our everyone-drives policies.

PostOct 27, 2020#1502020-10-27T22:08+00:00

KSDK - Driver suspected of DUI after hitting, killing woman in St. Louis County

https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/crime ... 1d554745f4

Car Crash Thread

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