5 year old killed on crosswalk, driver gets his driver's license back.

[Deleted]

I don't know if this news has been posted on international news but this happened in my city few days ago, basicly a 5 years old was crossing the street with a relative, and they got hit by a car and the kid died instantly, anyway what is ridiculous about this is that the driver got his driver's license back the next day, also while investigating this, the police let him drive and he's free atm.
Here's the vid: --SNIP--
Update: The driver said he was paying attention to his phone, texting or whatever.

[jackofwind]

Looks like some people should have taken their personal safety a little more seriously instead of trusting that everyone would stop.

It's not that the river isn't obviously at fault, it's just that people should pay a little more attention, especially if they're in charge of a small child. Crosswalks don't give you magical protection barriers.

I do wonder why they gave him his license back though

[FiveOneTwo]

before i click the link, could someone tell me is that just a news story or will i be seeing a 5 year old being hit by a car and killed? the OP is a bit unclear

[Kalis]

before i click the link, could someone tell me is that just a news story or will i be seeing a 5 year old being hit by a car? the OP is a bit unclear

Kid being hit by a car.


OT: Driver probably at fault, but really wait for traffic to stop if you are crossing the road with a kid, or even without one.

[Deleted]

5 year old, killed by a car.

[Darsithis]

I've removed the link. In general we don't allow gore/shock images & videos here. If you find a news article relating to this, feel free to put that in your opening post but not to this video

[wowaccounttom]

Blindly crossing the street without ensuring you can safely do so is just plain dumb.

Or do people really think that 2 white lines on the ground make them impervious to damage?

[Xargoth6634]

Didn't see the video since it was removed and I didn't feel like watching it anyway, but as a pedestrian you should always pay attention to traffic. In the US system a driver who hits anyone ever will pretty much be charged with driving unsafely, which is ridiculous, in my opinion. You can slow down to a crawl while going through a place with low visibility due to parked cars and whatnot, but hitting someone at 10-15 mph can still kill them. Since when did our society decide it was acceptable to take away all personal responsibility from people in their day to day lives? If I'm crossing a street, you can be damn sure I'm making sure there's no traffic coming. Right of way or not, I care a lot more about living than letting my family sue after I'm dead.

Really sucks about the kid though, it's not like he had anything to do with the decision to cross.

[Blueobelisk]

I don't see anything since Darsithis removed the link or whatever I guess, but either way you can't remove someone's license or punish them harshly if it was an accident.

It's a shame, for sure, but the way it sounds is like the pedestrians were also at fault.

[Themius]

This is the problem in New Jersey that I have all the time... no one fucking stops when they're suppose to. Stop sign, what?! That's just drive through sign obviously!

- - - Updated - - -

I don't see anything since Darsithis removed the link or whatever I guess, but either way you can't remove someone's license or punish them harshly if it was an accident.

It's a shame, for sure, but the way it sounds is like the pedestrians were also at fault.

From the sounds of it, the driver should have stopped but... didn't, and they weren't looking; however, the driver should have stopped.

[Gheld]

I don't know if this news has been posted on international news but this happened in my city few days ago, basicly a 5 years old was crossing the street with a relative, and they got hit by a car and the kid died instantly, anyway what is ridiculous about this is that the driver got his driver's license back the next day, also while investigating this, the police let him drive and he's free atm.
Here's the vid: --SNIP--

You mean police are treating him as innocent until proven guilty while investigating what may just have been a tragic accident that's impossible to blame anybody for?
*shock* *gasp*. The outrage!

It is in fact possible for a pedestrian to be negligent when crossing at a crosswalk.

- - - Updated - - -

Correction. After looking up the video, that driver was clearly negligent.

[Themius]

In all honesty, I don't believe stopping would have helped. It would have ensured he didn't run over the kid's corpse, but the kid would still be hit, and the driver would have suffered injury in his place.

I saw the video before it was removed, and I'll gladly private message anyone who would like it. The car was practically AT the crosswalk by the time the mother was crossing. Even if the driver had been paying attention, hitting the two people was unavoidable. Does that mean he shouldn't have paid attention? Of course not; He absolutely should have, and it's apparent that he wasn't because he doesn't stop as soon as he hits the two nor does he slow down in the slightest. But the accident was not avoidable solely on his part.

If the driver was paying attention and driving responsibly would he have hit them? You can't say the accident was unavoidable if the reason for it was due to the drive not stopping when he should have.

[Deleted]

after seeing the video, the driver totally in the wrong. The two victims involved where over 3/4 of the way across the street, on a crossing and the driver did not even attempt to slowdown until after the accident. I would guess that he was not paying attention to the road, or talking on the phone when it happened as they were clearly visible.
Should be charged with manslaughter at a minimum.

[wowaccounttom]

If the video in question is the same one I just saw on youtube (posted yesterday), then the driver is not to blame.

Didn't appear to be speeding (car going the other direction appears to be going roughly at the same speed).. and the adult and kid just decided to waltz their way to the other side of the road. You always turn more than one time to make sure there is nothing coming.

How can someone cross the street just like that... crosswalk or no crosswalk that was just plain dumb. As I posted before, a few white lines on the road doesn't magically make people impervious to damage.

--- that's assuming I found the right video.

[Themius]

I said in my post:



Meaning yes, I believe he still would have hit them.

Why was the driver, driving so fast that he wouldn't have been able to stop at a crosswalk to allow people to cross the street?

- - - Updated - - -

If the video in question is the same one I just saw on youtube (posted yesterday), then the driver is not to blame.

Didn't appear to be speeding (car going the other direction appears to be going roughly at the same speed).. and the adult and kid just decided to waltz their way to the other side of the road.

How can someone cross the street just like that... crosswalk or no crosswalk that was just plain dumb. As I posted before, a few white lines on the road doesn't magically make people impervious to damage.

Okay here we go.. it's a fucking crosswalk, in just about all places you have to stop for pedestrians that are crossing, that is the end of it, that is the law.

Your attitude of "it's a crosswalk but so what they should have looked, it's their fault" ignores the whole drivers having to stop at crosswalks when there are pedestrians.

[Gheld]

None of the drivers going through that crosswalk seem to make any note of it. It was an accident waiting to happen, and then it happened. Not to excuse the shitty driver, but that's poor urban planning too. I imagine it will get a crossing light put up in the near future.

EDIT: My guess is that the driver go this license back before the person came forward with that video. Cause that video is really fucking damning. There is no indication that the driver even reacts (even though they are easily in his field of view for a bare minimum of 3-4 seconds.)

[Maoli]

It's terrible that the child died but I bet if they could monitor every single person operating a vehicle you'd see thousands if not millions of situations yearly were people/cars nearly get hit due to someone not paying enough attention. It's not like this person having his license back while they investigate is going to led to them hitting someone else. They probably feel absolutely terrible about taking the child's life and if they do drive, will probably be paying more attention then normal.

[Gheld]

It's terrible that the child died but I bet if they could monitor every single person operating a vehicle you'd see thousands if not millions of situations yearly were people/cars nearly get hit due to someone not paying enough attention. It's not like this person having his license back while they investigate is going to led to them hitting someone else. They probably feel absolutely terrible about taking the child's life and if they do drive, will probably be paying more attention then normal.

4 seconds from the start of the video to the impact.
3 of those seconds the pedestrians are clearly crossing and out of the shadows of the buildings and in direct sunlight. There's absolutely no excuse that the driver shouldn't have seen them and at the very least reacted.

EDIT: in terms of estimating speed and distance unfortunately I can't even begin to attempt since it's an outter crop of a CCTV video and CCTV lenses have mad distrortion around the outer extremes of the frame due to their spherical elements.

[wowaccounttom]

Okay here we go.. it's a fucking crosswalk, in just about all places you have to stop for pedestrians that are crossing, that is the end of it, that is the law.

Your attitude of "it's a crosswalk but so what they should have looked, it's their fault" ignores the whole drivers having to stop at crosswalks when there are pedestrians.

Of course it is.

Crosswalks don't stop cars if you decide to walk without looking. Law or no law, a pedestrian's safety is just as much his/her own responsibility as it is a driver's.

Neither traffic lights nor a couple of lines on the road mean you shouldn't watch out for yourself.

About 15 years ago I had the right of way, the crossing light said I could go. A cop car almost ran me over. He/she didn't even attempt to stop. The white lines didn't protect me.

[Shaqur]

Its the drivers fault 100%.
When a pedestrian puts his feet on crosswalk you need to stop and let them pass.
After all its city drive, he should be aware of those situations and not talk on his phone, also he seems to be really fast on the city roads, what are the limits in US? In my country city speed if there are no signs its 50kmh or 30mph.