|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Editor's Note: The views and opinions expressed in all blog posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Redwood City Pulse or its staff.
Like with any 'Jaywalker', victim blaming came fast and hard because the victim:
-
was homeless and with a criminal record.
-
tested positive for meth and pot.
-
was wearing dark clothing in a dark area.
-
did not look at the car.
-
crossed in an unmarked section and not an intersection.
-
signs warned pedestrians to use crosswalks>300ft away.
-
was pushing a bicycle – which seems to be especially scary around here.
The local police chief said this in an interview with the SF Chronicle: “The driver said it was like a flash, the person walked out in front of them. His first alert to the collision was the sound of the collision. […] it's very clear it would have been difficult to avoid this collision […] based on how she came from the shadows right into the roadway.”
The county's attorney general also came out with statements like "Not all vehicular incidents, even those that result in the tragic loss of life, ultimately present a case for a criminal prosecution."
'Industry experts' said the accident appeared to be primarily caused by the pedestrian, and anyone suing for damages on behalf of the Jaywalker would face a challenge.
City traffic engineers probably said something along the lines of: we did all we could to make this safe. We put up a sign to make the pedestrian walk an extra 5-10 minutes. We are very sorry, but after that, safety is out of our hands.
It's a clear case of Jaywalking – open-and-shut, right?
Here is where the story gets scary
Usually, the city, the police, the car's owner, the car's driver, and even the media and the general public come together and blame everything on the one person who can't defend themselves – the dead pedestrian or cyclist. And this usually works very well. But this time, none of the Victim Shaming and Victim Blaming could stick since there was another solid witness: Data.
The Jaywalker was Elaine Herzberg, the first pedestrian ever killed by a self-driving car. And because of being the first ever, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) – people who usually research crashes around planes, trains, automobiles – became interested.
Car-centric addiction made industry experts, traffic engineers, the police chief, the attorney general, and the media say stupid things. And yet data and NTSB proved them all wrong. In the end, this Jaywalker got the Police Chief fired, an Attorney General had to recuse themselves, the city of Tempe and Uber were sued for millions of dollars in damages, and the 'industry experts' got it all wrong. Uber – the car's owner – had to shut down operations in Arizona and eventually sold the self-driving branch of their business. The car's driver, Rafaela Vasquez, has pleaded guilty to endangerment and has been sentenced to three years of supervised probation with no time in prison.
In the end, NTSB determined that the driver wasn't paying attention. The self-driving car and the driver had enough time to pick up the pedestrian in the distance. There was plenty of light and plenty of time to slow down the car, which was going 40 in a section where 35 mph was the limit. Why was a self-driving car allowed to exceed the posted speed limit?
The driver (and Uber) simply failed to follow this part of the law:
"The provisions of this section shall not relieve the driver of a vehicle from the duty to exercise due care for the safety of any pedestrian upon a roadway."
“Her mere presence on the roadway far in the distance ahead of the car was the factor which invoked the machine's duty to brake; the common legal duty to avoid her and other objects being general and preexisting."
"While jaywalking can constitute the illegal preemptive control of the roadway, it is not necessarily the proximate cause of an accident. Had the pedestrian instead been a moose or a disabled school bus in legal control of the roadway, passengers of the car – which failed to assure a clear stopping distance within its radius of vision – may have been killed instead. Motor vehicle operators must always be watchful for children, animals, and other hazards which may encroach into the roadway."
So, was the Jaywalker to blame? Elaine Herzberg didn't go free either; she still got the ultimate punishment. Compared to her, everybody else got off easy.
But the NTSB concluded the initial Jaywalker Story was a Ghost Story – in the end, it's still the driver's and the city's responsibility to provide safety.
And that, my friends, sounds very SCARY!
More Information:
