[TylerE]

I know this goes against the HN groupthink, but a lot of those accidents are not the car or the drivers fault. I live in a small college town. We have huge problems with students just walking right off the curb, especially when drunk.

[borski]

The pedestrian is not the one driving the weapon. It is your fault if you hit a pedestrian, even if they walk right off the curb, even if they’re drunk.

Unless they intentionally jump in front of your car in an attempt to commit suicide, it is always on you to ensure you can stop and respond to an emergency, and a pedestrian is such a thing, imho.

[laurencerowe]

I think this is more a design problem with US road infrastructure. City streets are much wider than in other countries which encourages drivers to drive more quickly and allows them to pay less attention. We'd have far fewer pedestrian and cyclist fatalities if we didn't require streets to be so wide.

[borski]

I agree.

[TylerE]

No, if the pedestrian walks out in the known-dangerour street without so much as a glance, not a crosswalk, that is categorically not the cars fault. Idiots are gonna idiots. Just like all the cyclists that get hit around here for not obeying stop signs.

ALL users of the road are responsible for following the rules. Not being in a car isn't a "I can do whatever I want, whenever I want, whyever I want" pass.

[borski]

If you walk around yielding a knife, and you accidentally walk into someone who wasn’t paying attention, it is definitely your fault.

If you drive a car and accidentally drive into someone who isn’t paying attention, that is also on you.

You are holding the bigger weapon. That means you have the higher requirement for safety, imho.

I track cars and race, fwiw, so it’s not like I don’t like cars.

[TylerE]

When someone steps out 10ft in front of a car doing 30mph all the attentiveness and safety devices in the world won't make a difference. It's simple physics.

[borski]

I agree, of course. That is far from the most common scenario.

In the most common scenario, it is the driver’s fault.

Of course there are exceptions to everything.

[TylerE]

It's happened 3 times so far this year in my town of <100k.