| "entirely her own fault" Why does the entire Internet feel the need to apportion blame in this case? There are four entities who could have and should have relatively straightforwardly avoided this death. 1. The woman shouldn't have crossed the street there and then. 2. The safety driver shouldn't have been looking at her phone. 3. Uber's automation should have caused the vehicle to brake much sooner. 4. That street should have been designed much safer. The design of a lit crosswalk on the median encourages people to cross there, so much stronger discouragement is required. Furthermore, a 35mph limit in an area with pedestrians is going to regularly cause pedestrian fatalities. That's a trade-off most people seem willing to make, but if you make that trade-off you have to own it. If the speed limit was 20mph that woman would be alive today. As far as I can see it, all 4 entities are 100% responsible for the death of the pedestrian. None of those 4 entities passed the "reasonable person" test with their actions, therefore all 4 are fully responsible. Sure you can argue all you want on whether one entity's misbehaviour is more egregious than the others. It doesn't matter; all 4 engaged in behaviour that regularly kills people at a rate much higher than acceptable. |