Why we ignore thousands of daily car crashes • Hacker News Board

Re: Why we ignore thousands of daily car crashes

#421

Post by spankalee » Thu, Jul 21, 2022, 9:52 PM UTC

colpabar wrote: post #359

jvm___ wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which baffles the rest of the world as we see the aggregate number and are dumbfounded that nothing is done.

As an extremely cynical american, my view is that we don't do anything because guns are a big industry in america, and industry controls our government in all the places that matter. But my point was more that we only ever talk about gun violence when a very specific type of gun violence occurs, and pointing out the incidents that constitute the bulk of the aggregate number usually gets you called a racist.

No post body was provided.

Re: Why we ignore thousands of daily car crashes

#422

Post by staticautomatic » Thu, Jul 21, 2022, 9:52 PM UTC

ccn0p wrote: post #164

rtkwe wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same pattern plays out all over the place. Diffuse deaths are just background noise to life where singular events breakthrough. Happens all the time with gun/heart attack/car/pollution/etc. deaths. The last 2 years of COVID proved that to me pretty definitively.

Covid deaths: Simple solution, lockdown, virtual learning, 6-feet apart, cancel sports and after-school activities, miss graduations, etc. All the mental fallout from this: Too complex, just a way of life. Drip drip drip.

Generally those things are helpful but I think China has pretty well demonstrated that there’s no alternative universe where fully locking everything down eliminates Covid.

Re: Why we ignore thousands of daily car crashes

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Post by WalterBright » Thu, Jul 21, 2022, 9:52 PM UTC

scrumbledober wrote: post #349

WalterBright wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ethics and justifications of military recruitment Putin's War shows what happens when you don't have a strong military.

it shows what happens when you don't have a strong military and try to invade a neighbor...

Since my point wasn't obvious, let me explain. Ukraine had a very weak military. If it was stronger, Putin would never have invaded.

Re: Why we ignore thousands of daily car crashes

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Post by WASDx » Thu, Jul 21, 2022, 9:53 PM UTC

ansible wrote: post #402

ccn0p wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Covid deaths: Simple solution, lockdown, virtual learning, 6-feet apart, cancel sports and after-school activities, miss graduations, etc. All the mental fallout from this: Too complex, just a way of life. Drip drip drip.

And if we hadn't done that stuff, we would have seen even more than the 1M deaths we did experience. Things could have gotten significantly worse as the hospitals filled up and space was not available for Covid patients and all the other people with heart attacks and other medical conditions. Even as it is, the medical staff have been overworked and extremely stressed. They've been quitting the medical field in very…

Also known as the preparedness paradox.

Re: Why we ignore thousands of daily car crashes

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Post by TheCoelacanth » Thu, Jul 21, 2022, 9:53 PM UTC

chris_va wrote: post #262

flaque wrote: post #96

There’s an audio version of the same point here: https://podcast.strongtowns.org/e/the-drip-drip-drip-of-traf... A ”best effort” summary of this article: if thousands of people die in once place, it’s one of the great tragedies in American history. However if thousands of people die in thousands different places, it is ignored and considered a fact of life. When a plane or train crashes, we stop everything and redesi…

To play devil's advocate, we already employ hundreds of thousands of "cities, planners, and civil engineers" continuously to battle these distributed deaths.

Those people are generally more focused on making sure that cars can go fast than on preventing deaths.

Re: Why we ignore thousands of daily car crashes

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Post by pkulak » Thu, Jul 21, 2022, 9:53 PM UTC

WalterBright wrote: post #228

wizofaus wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aside from the fact your own death is always going to impose a cost on society, I'd assume having a seatbelt on as a driver significantly increases your ability to maintain at least some control of a vehicle in a collision, reducing your chance of injuring others (both in and outside said vehicle).

You have a right to be stupid, even if it results in your death. > I'd assume having a seatbelt on as a driver significantly increases your ability to maintain at least some control of a vehicle in a collision Not a chance. The g forces are tremendous, and you're just along for the ride in a collision. In my major accident, I had a lap belt on, but my arms and legs and torso flung about totally out of my control.

> You have a right to be stupid

To _be_ stupid, sure.

Re: Why we ignore thousands of daily car crashes

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Post by Ancapistani » Thu, Jul 21, 2022, 9:54 PM UTC

_yoqn wrote: post #337

m463 wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there's one exception: some technologies have unusual publicity. a gasoline car fire? not a peep. an electric car fire? the media goes crazy. also nuclear power. Fukushima got a lot of attention, but radiation deaths linked to burning coal are significantly higher but not touched by the media.

How often do gas cars catch on fire randomly (and not under the hood but under the passenger compartment as with EVs) compared with spontaneous electric car fires? This is reminiscent of the Galaxy Notes that were exploding in people's pockets some years ago.

I’ve had it happen once, in a 1988 Toyota pickup. The (OEM) radio wiring caught fire while driving at slow speed.

Re: Why we ignore thousands of daily car crashes

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Post by drc500free » Thu, Jul 21, 2022, 9:54 PM UTC

whimsicalism wrote: post #368

AlwaysRock wrote: post #315

Never owned a car of my own until two years ago. Our car has been hit three times in the last two years. Once totaled on the high way (another drivers fault) and twice while parked. Roughly 50K in damages across the two cars and 3 months in the shop doing repairs. We spent 20K on a new car after the old one was totaled and insurance paid out a fraction of what a similar car would cost. We've paid close to 2K in deduc…

Where do you live? West coast or South?

My money's on mid-west, honestly.

Re: Why we ignore thousands of daily car crashes

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Post by vel0city » Thu, Jul 21, 2022, 9:54 PM UTC

_yoqn wrote: post #337

m463 wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there's one exception: some technologies have unusual publicity. a gasoline car fire? not a peep. an electric car fire? the media goes crazy. also nuclear power. Fukushima got a lot of attention, but radiation deaths linked to burning coal are significantly higher but not touched by the media.

How often do gas cars catch on fire randomly (and not under the hood but under the passenger compartment as with EVs) compared with spontaneous electric car fires? This is reminiscent of the Galaxy Notes that were exploding in people's pockets some years ago.

There are tons of ICE car fire recalls. My sister in law's car recently had a recall for the ABS system starting a fire. A neighbor of mine had their house burn down in the 90s from a car parked for several days in their garage from what would later be a recall. Ford had a massive recall of millions of cars because the steering column would catch fire.

I've owned multiple cars which have had some kind of recall which resulted in a fire risk. Zero of them have been EVs.

Sure, those aren't all starting in the passenger compartment, but a lot of these battery fires aren't always starting in the passenger compartment either.

Re: Why we ignore thousands of daily car crashes

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Post by toast0 » Thu, Jul 21, 2022, 9:54 PM UTC

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #303

jjcm wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Legally it's required, but I think their point is it should be required by hardware. Right now most new cars just beep at you, but you can still operate them.

We never pushed for it politically because it wouldn't change anything but it would piss people off. You can simply buckle the seatbelt with nobody in the seat, then sit down, and the requirement is defeated. On the other hand, a mandatory breathalyzer for ignition would be useful to prevent a lone driver from driving drunk. We already have them for people with DUIs, so we should make them mandatory for all cars.

> On the other hand, a mandatory breathalyzer for ignition would be useful to prevent a lone driver from driving drunk. We already have them for people with DUIs, so we should make them mandatory for all cars.

I don't drink often, and I have never and would never drink and drive, but please no. Mandatory breathalyzers for everyone is an immense expense and a huge inconvenience and I suspect would be easily bypassed by those who choose to drink and drive. And I don't want to live with the consequences of making it hard to bypass such a device, because it likely makes working on a vehicle nearly impossible.