The Accidental Journalist (an occasional series chronicling how predictable, preventable crashes are turned into accidents)
The first thing that jumps out in this piece is the identification of the victim as “homeless.” A subtle detail, or some kind of implied pejorative — hmm, maybe he was one of those crazy guys you see wandering willy-nilly across the street, and perhaps he was asking for it. Can you imagine the headline: McMansion Owner Struck and Killed by Car in Santa Barbara?
The victim had already been struck by a car before — the driver was cited with failure to yield — but the circumstances here beggar belief:
Castillo, according to McCaffrey, told investigators that he thought the man would clear the intersection before he drove through, but wound up striking the victim with the right front of his car. The victim was reportedly swept up onto the hood of the vehicle before falling to the pavement.
Yes, it’s always a good idea, when approaching an elderly pedestrian, to continue at speed in a multi-ton vehicle towards someone crossing in a crosswalk, owing to your own faith in your driving abilities and your estimation of their walking speed. There’s certainly nothing that can go wrong there, unless, oops, you have an “accident.”
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This entry was posted on Thursday, May 20th, 2010 at 9:21 am and is filed under Pedestrians, Risk, The Accidental Journalist. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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May 20th, 2010 at 12:28 pm
Another fine detail is that the criminal perpetrator did not have a driver’s licence.
Here in Ontario he would be charged with “Dangerous Driving Causing Death” and “Criminal Negligence Causing Death.” Those are the charges one of Ontario’s former Attorneys-General is facing for killing a cyclist. But at least he had a driver’s licence.
May 21st, 2010 at 11:45 pm
Another media outlet did use ‘collision’ not ‘accident’.
http://www.thedailysound.com/results/051910pedfatal
May 27th, 2010 at 11:08 am
@Kevin: Charges against Michael Bryant were dropped.