A year and a half ago I asked for some help for my oldest and closest friend who lost his son after being hit by a car and didn't stop. Investigations have been ongoing and today the inquest finished with the final result.
The car was a taxi which had faults resulting in poor visibility and not seeing the boy lying in the road. Something as simple as quickly pulling over and manually sorting it would have prevented his death. I realise we are all rushing around and I know as I drive around 60k miles a year how impatient you can get. You just want to get to where you are going. i can't see this tragedy as anything less than laziness. The "it'll be alright" mentality. What's the worst that can happen? Well the worst did happen.
At least my friend can at last move on and hope to find some level of peace. Just please everyone, if you're driving, even just to the shop up the road, make sure you can see. It really doesn't take long to do this. At worst you add 2 mins onto your journey. It may just save a life. Yours or someone else's. X
http://m.derbytelegraph.co.uk/halcyon-theuri-s-mum-speaks-out-after-inquest-concludes-chef-should-have-been-seen-lying-in-road/story-30003544-detail/story.html
I play guitar and take photos of stuff. I also like beans on toast.
Comments
you never really get over a childs death.
i feel for you friend,especially this time of year.
i hope he can find some peace.
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That said, when sat behind a ton of metal travelling at speed, even not breaking the limit, it is our absolute duty to make sure we are paying absolute attention to the road and aware of everything, let alone be able to see properly in the first place. Even sober pedestrians in broad daylight can be an issue. It is my opinion (and I can't think of an argument against this) that if someone is behind a wheel and is unable to give their attention on the road, that person should not behind the wheel. For their own sake as much as others.
It's not just pedestrians either. I see more accidents than most because of the amount of time I spend in the car. I can't imagine how many of those are due to things that shouldn't have happened. Checking a text. Changing channel on the radio. Making sure your hair is ok. Its baffling. What's more important than keeping yourself and others alive. Yes, pedestrians have a responsibility themselves to pay attention. Just like drivers however, this doesn't always happen. In that situation, a car will win that fight all day long.
The taxi driver in this case made a terrible judgment and someone lost their life. He made the deduction that despite not being able to see the road and his surroundings fully, that was good enough to continue on his journey. The story could have been a different one. "Taxi driver involved in fatal collision due to not being able to see an oncoming vehicle". Then who is at fault? I can't see any way of reading this story other than the driver should have spent the few seconds it would have taken to make sure he could see properly.
I play guitar and take photos of stuff. I also like beans on toast.
I hope the outcome helps your friends in some way.
Whenever I scrape the ice of our windscreen I'm always really careful to do the vertical strip by the passenger's A-pillar. It's one of those hits that you're not sure is worth doing as it's not the bit you look out of, but as a regular cyclist I'm well aware that that is often the part of the windscreen which you'd see me out of. Again, a little bit of laziness can lead to catastrophic result.
And if you're not able to see something the size of a body in the road then you shouldn't be driving.
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Donald Trump needs kicking out of a helicopter
I'm personally responsible for all global warming
Inquests are not courts of "blame" or "liability" they are courts of fact.
They are only there to decide the most likely factual description of an event leading to a death. there is no power to penalise, punish, or even clear any party involved.
The verdict reached is persuasive in any subsequent action (criminal or civil) but not binding.
So in this case, it appears the family of the deceased have a civil case against the driver, but any damages will be significantly lowered due to "Contributory Negligence" of the deceased for lying down in the road in the first place.
Contributory Negligence is a feature of most injury based litigation. Often a worker who didn't wear the issued protective gear, or a biker that didn't wear a helmet etc etc. The Index Event was still caused by someone else, but the injured person's own failures are taken into account if those failures led to a level of harm that would not have occurred without the failures.
I used to do quite a lot of Coroners Court work. It's one of those jobs where there is no such thing as a good day.
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