Fizzaly

Boise in a whole is not that bad, but those problem areas that where listed in that article are spot on i will not go any where near fairveiw ave unless i HAVE to.

And getting sentenced to jail has nothing to do with evil it has to do with punishment, why would you have to be drunk to require a bigger punishment if you where sober you should have had more of a chance of avoiding the accident. The point being is if you commit a crime it doesnt matter if it was an accident or not, im pretty sure people dont run over cyclists on purpose but, when it does happen and someone gets killed should we just turn a blind eye and ignore it? No because thats not the way the law works. A couple of years ago i got ran over, and i mean the car went over me the lady driving was on her cell phone and i know she was cause i saw her on it when it went to court she denied it and ultimately she got a slap on the wrist and didnt even have to pay for my medical bill which where around 15k she got a innitentive driving ticket thats it. Yes i could have sued her but if i lost i would have to pay legal fees which i couldnt afford. Just seems that drivers can get away with murder quite literally and get away with it. Then again these are just my views and everyone is entitled to their own.

Andy_K 

Considering who he'd be learning it from, you probably wouldn't want him to learn much.

atbman

What baffles me is how any legislators thought it would be a good idea to issue a 16 year old with a driving licence.

andrelam

In the Buffalo area last month someone hit and killed a pedestrian while driving drunk and he got ZERO jail time. Apparently the weather was considered contributory to the accident... I guess the lesson the courts are sending it. It is OK to drive drunk when it snows because you can just blame the weather... that is sickning. At least with the little I saw of this situation there was no alcohol involved. Sadly accidents happen and it does sound like the kid is taking responsability. This clearly will not bring back a loved one, but when you use drugs, alcohol or miss-use prescription drugs, then you are asking for an accident to happen. Either way a sad situation.

André

tjspiel

One life is gone and their family is in grief. Severe punishments for certain types of accidents can act as a deterrent but in other cases all it does is ruin another life, - and the citizens get to foot the bill.

gna

Hey, it's not just bicyclists:

https://www.heraldnet.com/article/201...WS02/706169674

AdamDZ

This is unbelievable, mind-numbingly unbelievable... Although, I heard about drivers walking away with a ticket for killing pedestrians in NYC.

tjspiel

This particular incident brings up a whole other set of questions. Should drivers be required to take behind the wheel tests every 5 or 10 years? At 92 maybe this person was still a very competent driver and made an uncharacteristic mistake, or maybe they shouldn't be driving at all.

Or maybe rather than punishing people for being human and making mistakes or just getting old, we should be doing more to make it possible to get places without a car. Taking the keys from away from an elderly person makes they and everyone else safer, but it also can really do a number on their quality of life. My mother became very isolated after she quit driving. The fact that she rarely did any vigorous exercise shortened her life too.

Over the weekend I just heard stories about my grandfather driving well into his 80's and well past his ability to do so safely. He never drove outside of town or at night. Everyone in town recognized his car and knew to give him a wide berth. He died when I was a teenager but I still remember him getting his license renewed for the last time and the same day turning over his keys to my mother. The only thing that made giving up his keys tolerable was knowing that legally at least he could still drive another 4 years.

Cars should not hold the importance they do.

AdamDZ

Getting killed kind of does a number on one's quality of life too...

Edit: to clarify, I respect old people but really, they (we) should pass tests periodically to make sure they're able to drive. On the other end of things I'm for increasing the age and young driver restrictions too.

tjspiel

duplicate post

tjspiel

Sure, and as bad as it is, it cannot be undone.

I'm not opposed to making sure people are still competent to drive before letting them renew their license, but I also recognize that people continue to drive when they shouldn't for very clear reasons. Reasons that as a society we should be paying more attention to and doing something to address.

Slapping a 92 year old woman with a big fine and jail sentence does nothing to prevent some other 92 year old from crossing the centerline and taking out a bunch of motorcycles.

rex_kramer

I'm thinking some drivers have it in their heads that cyclists must yield to them no matter what the circumstances. I had the right of way last week when some guy was pulling out of his driveway. We made eye contact as he KEPT pulling forward. He had no intention of stopping for me and I made the assumption that he knew he was supposed to wait. Lucky for me there was no one in the lane when I swerved to miss him.

rex_kramer

I have this attitude towards drunk drivers. Considering the potential for loss of life, you have to commit a helluva lot of DUI's before you do any real time of suffer any sort of real justice. It only takes one instance of drunk driving to kill. The punishment will never fit the crime as far as I'm concerned.

Seattle Forrest

I read the "be visible" part as "we've got one dead cyclist - let's all do our part not to have any more." I don't think it's about anything to do with blame; just a local newspaper trying to throw a "soundbite" safety tip into their article. I didn't think it even came close to assigning blame.

The one quote that left me scratching my head was this: "... so we always have to be on the right of way of possibilities." It's ungrammatical gibberish.

electrik

I keep saying this, but very old drivers really scare me.

JPprivate

Well, you know.... without a car one cannot get anywhere. So the sooner you get people into cars, the more they get used to them and feel free to move 60 miles outside of anything just so they can afford the 5000 sq ft house on a $40k income.

AdamDZ

The sooner people get the drivers license the sooner they become a shee... um, a good consumer.

People can get around fine without cars a lot of the time. Car is usually needed because, um... everybody has a car, right? Also, the govt couldn't care less as long as car and oil industry lobbyists are around taking care of our politicians. The industry infected our society with the love of cars (not the need of cars) and the govt is happy to comply.

So people will keep dying in preventable accidents but the car, oil and insurance companies will thrive and be happy.

jdom

I think this is it.
Being in a hurry is allways the excuse,the fact is they should just leave a little earlier.

pwdeegan

or like war in that even when you have complete focus you still get "blown up." focus, in cases like this, just mean you'll be lucky to get a last glimpse at what is about to hit you.

Aussie_Al

what b/s! I had a friend growing up who got hit by a car , brain damaged for life - the girl driving the car was some rich little girl and daddy got her off with probation - sometimes there is just no justice

Doohickie

In Texas in a similar case, the driver was not cited when a cyclist was killed.

colorisnt

This is the thing that gets me. You can't get around my town sans-car really, but I managed to go 22 years without owning a car. It was very frustrating in high school because every club and activity just ASSUMED that you had a car. Which wasn't true for me. Our city is only populated by 30,000 people, but it is built OUT and not UP. Good luck to you to get anywhere. The nearest jobs are 20 - 30 miles away. Thus, to have a job as a kid, you needed a car.

Totally counterproductive. I love to bike and love to use my car on a limited basis. And where I am going to grad school, this is possible, but it is NOT the case for 70% of the population. Everyone lives in the suburbs, so no one cares about public transit. When the money moves outside of the city, so does the concern. Suddenly, everyone has a car.

I lived in Europe for a year. Wow did I get impressed by public transit! What a miraculous change of events! Children could get places without a car. Everyone was more independent. Things were reliable, cheap, and everything just WORKED. I miss it every day.

tjspiel

To me this a fundamental problem. Car accidents are near the top, if not the top killer of Americans. Safer cars, better education, less drunk/distracted driving, better traffic controls all help but nothing would help more than drastically reducing the number of miles driven.

Andy_K 

I disagree with the second part of this statement. Being in a hurry is certainly a epidemic problem in our society, but I think the solution is to readjust our ideas about urgency and time. Leaving earlier is just a band-aid.

pharasz

This does not make sense. If she got a ticket for innitentive [sic] driving then fault has been clearly established and her insurance would have to pay your medical bills. At least, that's the way it worked for me when the guy hit me three weeks ago. He got a ticket for careless driving and his insurance adjuster was ecstatic that all I wanted was to have my medical bills paid.