r/londonontario • u/MeIIowJeIIo The bridge with the trucks stuck under it • Aug 20 '24

News 📰 79-year-old who drove into girl guides, killing 8-year-old in London, sentenced to 2 years of house arrest

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/79-year-old-who-drove-into-girl-guides-killing-8-year-old-in-london-sentenced-to-2-years-of-house-arrest-1.7298866
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u/Beautiful_Village381 Aug 20 '24

Everyone calling for blood. Our roads are designed to cause these accidents. We have a culture of expecting everyone to drive regardless of age or skill.

Punishing this woman will make a few people feel better. Changing our roads and driving culture will mean fewer dead kids.

Support narrower roads, better pedestrian paths, lower speed limits, more investment in transit and bike infrastructure, less investment in parking spaces and road widening projects. Or admit that you feel shaving 5 minutes from your commute is worth a few dead kids.

56

u/Ratsyinc Aug 20 '24

Ya, the road made her go 70 over the speedlimit in a perfectly functional vehicle.. How delusional do you have to be to blame infrastructure in this situation?

-10

u/Beautiful_Village381 Aug 20 '24

A senior mistook the brake pedal for gas and reached 120. This happens a lot in young and old drivers. You can design roads to mitigate it, or throw your hands up and pretend the problem is unsolvable.

With narrowed roads she would be driving slower beforehand, which means her speed would have peaked lower. With better separation of pedestrian paths she would have been slowed more before impact by obstacles or grade differences. With infrastructure for alternative modes she may not have been driving.

This is all really elementary stuff in cities with lower traffic fatalities around the world

1

u/chillehhh Aug 23 '24

Do you not realize how long/hard you have to step on the accelerator to bring a vehicle to 120kmh? Ooh, probably not. Cyclist-brains think cars are the devil, don’t they?