I-95 Death Row takes 3 more.

ken56 wrote:
So the helicopter crash that took Kobe Bryant was an accident? No one is to blame? Every "accident" has a cause and therefore there is no such thing as an accident. A reason can always be attached as to why something happened. Vehicle crashes are most always blamed on the excessive speed the operator chooses to use according to the NTSB.

In legal proceedings, the word "accident" implies that no one is at fault or negligent. However, more common everyday usage does not seem to carry that connotation, and we aren't talking about courtroom proceedings here. A toddler that pees his or her pants has had an "accident" despite there being an obvious way to foresee the possibility and prevent it. From my dictionary (Webster's New World Dictionary, 3rd college edition):

1. a happening that is not expected, foreseen, or intended.
2. an unpleasant and unintended happening, sometimes resulting from negligence, that results in injury, loss, damage, etc.
(...some other uses that are not pertinent here...)
6. Law: an unforeseen event that occurs without anyone's fault or negligence

To attempt to convince everyone that the meaning of the word is something other than the common, everyday meaning will be quite an uphill battle. I, for one, am not convinced. I would say that crash on the highway is very much an accident, in the vast majority of cases, because usually people do not set out to crash, whether or not they are driving recklessly in some fashion. Indeed, things that are not foreseeable nor avoidable are precisely those that I would typically not call accidents: a tree being struck by lightning and falling on a garage is a misfortune but not so much an accident, while a tree that was cut with a chainsaw and fell on a garage would very much be an accident, in my mind.

So the helicopter crash that took Kobe Bryant was an accident? No one is to blame? Every "accident" has a cause and therefore there is no such thing as an accident. A reason can always be attached as to why something happened. Vehicle crashes are most always blamed on the excessive speed the operator chooses to use according to the NTSB.

Apples and oranges. That was a blatant disregard for weather conditions. Of course every accident has a cause-every event in life has a "cause". It's a question of whether or not the "cause" (or reason) was purposeful. I'm reasonably certain animals don't run out into traffic "on purpose" nor do cars hit obstacles they cannot see "on purpose". "Vehicle crashes are most always blamed on the excessive speed..." still leaves a lot of room for other causes.

I, too, am in the "bad luck" category. I've been driving for 40 years and have been involved in 12 or so accidents, none of which have been my fault. I have been side-swiped, rear-ended, had someone run a stop sign, and I broadsided someone who pulled out from behind a snowbank without stopping (his admission). They were all accidents. Preventable, but none-the-less still accidents because I don't think anyone got up that morning with the purpose of causing harm to someone else.

So the helicopter crash that took Kobe Bryant was an accident? No one is to blame? Every "accident" has a cause and therefore there is no such thing as an accident. A reason can always be attached as to why something happened. Vehicle crashes are most always blamed on the excessive speed the operator chooses to use according to the NTSB.

2oldman wrote:

GDS-3950BH wrote:
100% of my accidents in the last 20 years, of which I have had 9, maybe 10, were the fault of Odocoileus virginianus.......the bastards.

That's a lot.

That's what I was thinking. Compared to my zero in 20 years.

I must live a charmed life. Glad I don't have that kind of karma.

Mike

Second Chance wrote:
An estimated 52 percent of car accidents occur within 5 miles of a person's home, and 77 percent occur within 15 miles or less. Far more deaths occur on rural roads than on city streets according to the NHTSA. For many folks, the most dangerous road is the one on which they have lost a loved one. For me, that is Riverwatch Parkway in Augusta, GA.

Of course, 77% of miles driven are within 15 miles of your house, so all this does is indicate you have crashes where you are driving.

It's kind of hard to have a crash on a road you don't drive on.

I believe the interstates as a whole are safer mainly because of lack of intersections. I do remember a few years ago a 193 car pileup on I-94 up here in Michigan though due to bad weather.:E

Dan

.:S

GDS-3950BH wrote:
100% of my accidents in the last 20 years, of which I have had 9, maybe 10, were the fault of Odocoileus virginianus.......the bastards.

That's a lot.

When I was in Florida last winter, I remember the television stations talking about a multi-fatality crash on I-75 near Gainesville. Can't remember if it was north or south.

The thing which stuck in my mind was the statistics they showed - and over the previous 10 years almost 1/2 of the total interstate/ tollroad fatalaties in the state occured between Ocala and Lake City on I-75.

Spent most of January and first week of February near Daytona. Didn't see I-95 as signicantly worse than any stretch of interstate in Florida, or any other state. We've been in 46 different onese in the past five years.

But like almost all interstates, the number of vehicles is more every year it seems. The people go faster. That's my perception. I have not factual data to back it up.

Maybe part of that perception is that I'm getting older and don't react as well as I did even four years ago when in was in that area at the same time of year.

Though in 2015, I didn't have hearing aids and had not had cataract surgery. In 2019 I definitely feel that I hear more and see more than four years earlier.

All interstates, all highways, are potentially dangerous. And I'm less tolerant of change and what I see as stupid behavior ten years ago. Not sure if that is because more young people are stupid, or that I'm older and fed up.

2oldman wrote:

Walaby wrote:

ken56 wrote:
There is no such thing as an accident.

Stupid assertion/comment.

Most 'accidents' are the result of someone not paying attention, being drunk, speeding..etc. Not all, just most.

We kill each other on the highways at a great rate. Put me in the computer-controlled cars welcome committee.

100% of my accidents in the last 20 years, of which I have had 9, maybe 10, were the fault of Odocoileus virginianus.......the bastards. No computer controlled car is going to avoid most of those, especially the ones that T bone you.