Read this Mercury News article about the legal aftermath of a fatal car accident in the Bay Area, and look at the window it gives into our attitudes about responsibility.
Her attorney, Louis Goodman, said his client is ``devastated'' by the crash and does not deserve a lengthy jail sentence.His client was driving 60 in heavy fog, and ran into a group of stopped cars, killing a motorcyclist.``It's very appropriate disposition,'' Goodman said, referring to the promise of no or low jail time. ``It's a traffic accident. It's a tragic traffic accident,'' but ``it's a risk that motorcyclists take.''
Oops.
One of the things I think about a lot, and will amplify more, is the disconnect between action and consequence. People cant learn that way.
So we breed idiots like the guy I saw on the 405 (a stupendously busy freeway here in Los Angeles) today, driving in stop and go traffic, reading a document on his steering wheel and driving in his lane by Braille.
And if hed run me over and killed me, it would have been my fault for being so vulnerable.
This has wider consequences, which well discuss later.