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Humboldt Broncos
- Thread starter nobbie48
- Start date
Dealing with the guilt of making a big mistake like the trucker might have made has to be life altering.Last June a pickup blew thru a stop sign outside the shop i was working at.He t-boned a Suzuki rider that likely never knew what hit him.The Ford Ranger went over the bike and rider,became airborne and ended up in a ditch.The rider ended up wedged in the pile of twisted bike without his fullface lid.He made an attempt to move a leg and some gurgling sounds as a coworker and i stayed at his side till responders arrived.He didn't make it.I still have a bit of trouble unseeing what i saw.
The truck driver sat on his tailgate until police arrived.He will probably get a light fine for what he did.That is the way our system works.His life is no doubt changed forever.
My point is.I hope the public and the media can let the system do it's job without turning it into a circus.
The truck driver sat on his tailgate until police arrived.He will probably get a light fine for what he did.That is the way our system works.His life is no doubt changed forever.
My point is.I hope the public and the media can let the system do it's job without turning it into a circus.
The "system" has thus far let everyone down when it comes to stuff like drunk and distracted driving. Not saying for sure that's what happened here but if it was -- if 15 people lost their lives and/or were maimed with life-altering injuries because the driver was texting or whatever -- I hope they make a "circus" out of it. Inattentive driving is killing people and if a circus is needed to draw up enough public ire to get judges and LEO to change their ways, so be it. If the driver is guilty of this then f-him; I don't care that his fragile psyche may be damaged. The slaughter of so many innocent people should weigh heavily on him for the rest of his life.
That is, of course, if that's what happened here. What I'm worried about is that we'll never hear the true story...
In Wingboy's post and the Humboldt crash the truck drivers will both have earned lessons but did they ever have close calls that they could have learned from at little or no expense?
A few years back I was starting through a light that had just turned green and had to slam on the brakes to avoid a T bone from a texting driver. The texting driver hit his brakes as well but would have hit me if I hadn't stopped.
I'm a bit cynical but can't help but feel that the driver was texting again in minutes.
How many people reflect on their day and adjust their actions, positively or negatively as appropriate, to make them a safer or better person. I fear that most just put it away as "Well, no one got hurt."
A few years back I was starting through a light that had just turned green and had to slam on the brakes to avoid a T bone from a texting driver. The texting driver hit his brakes as well but would have hit me if I hadn't stopped.
I'm a bit cynical but can't help but feel that the driver was texting again in minutes.
How many people reflect on their day and adjust their actions, positively or negatively as appropriate, to make them a safer or better person. I fear that most just put it away as "Well, no one got hurt."
Not to jack the thread, but without assuming the fault in this incident, we could benefit from not looking at these events from a blood-thirsty, retribution eye, but looking at the harder questions on how to make real changes. The OPP have reported a marked increase in vehicular related deaths last year, despite the increase in laws to combat the causes (HTA 172, texting, 0.05 suspensions, etc). Like many of the debates on bad accidents on this and other discussion threads, it is a combination of factors that often aggravate an accident. I'm amazed that we haven't seen real comprehensive approach to the issues, but I guess no politician has the nuts to step up. Just a side note, any particular reason that buses are not governed to the same speed as trucks, or restricted from the passing lane that trucks are not allowed in? Just a small example of the kind of thinking and driving culture that is flawed.
happycrappy's post isn't jacking the thread. It's part of the need for discussion to resolve the root issues that result in these types of incidents.
Have we forgotten the Lac Megantic rail disaster? 47 dead IIRC.
How about the Titanic, Bhopal, Chernobyl
My fear is that it gets traced back to money. Safety isn't free.
Have we forgotten the Lac Megantic rail disaster? 47 dead IIRC.
How about the Titanic, Bhopal, Chernobyl
My fear is that it gets traced back to money. Safety isn't free.
We can add as many laws as we want but if the penalties are not there and the enforcement is spotty there will be no deterrent.
Sadly, it usually takes an incident like this to get some sort of action on issues of public safety. Even more sad is that the process moves so slowly that people will have long-since put away their hockey sticks and all but forgotten Humboldt and nothing will change.
Mad Mike
Well-known member
Agreed.
In the last 5 years family members have been involved in 5 collisions with texting drivers. 2 of our vehicles were irreparable write-offs and the drivers/passengers fortunate to have evaded injury or death, the other 3 fixed. All 5 of the at fault drivers were texting. 2 were charged with careless, one with dangerous and 2 admitted fault but were not charged.
None of these at fault drivers was charged with distracted driving. Police are not willing to investigate phone usage at times of collision.
My friend's son was involved in a horrific rear end collision on his bike last fall on Markham Rd... texting pickup driver. Careless driving, no distracted driving charge.
I wish there was a way to increase the will of police to tackle this scourge. I also can't understand why a behavior that has proved higher rates of carnage than impaired driving is so tolerated.
Because time. Police probably just want to run and gun. The amount of time required to get a warrant, pull the phone records, issue and prosecute the charge isn't seen as being worthwhile when they could be out with the radar gun issuing 15 tickets in the same amount of time.
It would be nice if the system were streamlined so police had easy access to phone records for ~20 minutes prior to a collision. Something along the lines of they enter report number, license number, phone number and badge number and information on recently sent/received messages/data (and corresponding location/speed if available) is provided. Hell if people are concerned about privacy, it could black out the numbers and most of the content (which could later be retrieved with a warrant if required). That should provide sufficient evidence (if there is only one person in the car) to lay a distracted charge even if they can't prove the driver was distracted at the second of impact.
If a driver is typing a text but hasn't pushed the send button will it show on his phone record? I don't think so but correct me if I'm wrong.
The carrier won't have a record until you press send. That being said, most people don't send just one, so that was my justification for asking for a short period before the crash. The distracted driving charge doesn't require a crash. Proving that you were actually texting at the time of the crash is unnecessary, you just need to prove that they were texting while driving at some point.
For me, I have no idea about the situation. It's still within the realm of possibility that the truck broke down in the middle of the intersection long before the bus arrived, and the bus driver didn't see it for some reason. So I will withhold my judgement and wait to see what the experts have to say.
As for some of you deciding that the accident is the fault of the Police - lol.
People need to sit down, shake their heads, and take responsibility for their own actions.
If you're texting and driving, EVER, it's on you, and you alone.
As for some of you deciding that the accident is the fault of the Police - lol.
People need to sit down, shake their heads, and take responsibility for their own actions.
If you're texting and driving, EVER, it's on you, and you alone.
I initially thought something similar was possible, but there was way too much energy moving right to left in that picture. If the truck was stopped, the debris would be pushed reasonably straight up the road.
At this point, the main question is why the truck blew the stop sign. There are many possibilities (sun, distracted, mechanical, tired, missing sign, etc). Hopefully the investigation can determine the main cause(s) so it can be targeted to minimize tragedies in the future.
I think the only only real solution for distracted driving (texting/social media usage) will be to utilize the same technology to prevent people doing stupid things. If smartphone manufacturers all come together I'm sure they will be able to tackle this problem ... maybe a good starting point will be to disable 90% of phone features when motion is detected (>10-15kmh), or disabling keyboard input all together (voice command only). The remaining options can be accessed only through bluetooth/handsfree connection. I understand this could pose some inconvenience for passengers but at least this might force many drivers to leave their phones alone.
You can probably implement this the other way. In order to type you have to keep a finger on a dot that is moving around. Make texting while moving take so much attention that you crash the first time you try. Passengers could easily use their phones as they don't need to focus outside the car.
From a LE perspective, I won't be surprised if phones become like open alcohol and must be out of reach of the driver. As many people use phone as GPS, maybe there could be an interlock (eg. if connected to car bluetooth and you are moving touchscreen is disabled). Alternatively they go cold turkey and ban phones from drivers reach and if you want access to phone you need android auto or apple car play enabled system in the car.
Money will fight that tooth and nail. Without sell phones salesperson productivity will drop substantially. We are collateral damage.
Moralize all you want it won't happen. Hands free is a joke. It's the distracted mind that causes the problem.
The problem is the "hacker community" would immediately produce hacks and apps to counter anything intended to prevent use during movement >10kph. It would probably end up being the most popular download. As well, passengers would be unable to use their devices (which I don't care about but a lot of others do...)
I like the idea of the "dot" but think it too would be hacked-out as soon as it arrived.
Even if we don't criminalize device-related distracted driving, we can still make it unpalatable: one-time fines are one thing but insurance hits would be taken much more seriously, especially if a 1st offense resulted in a big 5-year increase and a 2nd or 3rd offence resulted in one needing to seek facility insurance.
I like the idea of the "dot" but think it too would be hacked-out as soon as it arrived.
Even if we don't criminalize device-related distracted driving, we can still make it unpalatable: one-time fines are one thing but insurance hits would be taken much more seriously, especially if a 1st offense resulted in a big 5-year increase and a 2nd or 3rd offence resulted in one needing to seek facility insurance.
My wife and her quilting buddies hoped to meet 10% of the 500 quilts requested. All their own effort and supplies, and some generous local business support with materials and machines, and massive support from Mackie transportation, has resulted in 72 quilts headed west. Lovely effort.
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