lane_viper

I'm not sure I agree with this. Acts of nature, like lightning striking a tree and it falling on the road in front of you with no reaction time is not avoidable. Most accidents are avoidable, but not 100%. Sometimes bad luck, and bad things just happen.

TheDonEffect

Terrible drivers, entitled pedestrians. Drive through Berkeley one day, you'll see what I mean.

billios996

It's not just Berkley. Pedestrians are truly oblivious lately, all looking down at their phones as they walk blindly. My company in PA had to ban people from using phones while walking on campus. I watched a lady talking on her phone mindlessly wander into a street while talking on her phone, then totally shocked where she was standing when she hung up. People are idiots.

cbehney

In Washington DC it's an insane combo of tourists, monument ogling, AND their phones. It's high alert all the time for drivers.

engifineer

I think the problem with the statement is that it is just a warm fuzzy statement with zero applicability in reality. of course all accidents are "preventable" but that is why they are accidents. It is not always practical to prevent them. Sure, having all sorts of sensors to prevent a person on their phone from walking into traffic COULD be a thing .. or we could just let the percentage of people who do it get hit by a car and let nature take its course :P But seriously, you cannot prevent all accidents in the real world. Aint gonna happen .. especially since 100% flawless technology is 100% impossible.

engifineer

And do not get me started on adults in their 20's walking out in front of cars playing frickin pokemon. The engineering firm I work for is next to a part of Activision that tests video games. The testers are pretty much all in their 20's, maybe early 30's. When that game came out, I literally had to stop in the middle of the street while 4 of them mindlessly walked out in front of me, not even knowing there was a car coming, as they stared into their phones walking after a pokemon ... then when I finally had to hit the horn at the mindless morons, they look at me like I just appeared out of nowhere (long, straight road with a 25mph speed limit .. so I saw them for a long while before I got close and before they walked into the street) and even looked annoyed at me for almost hitting their entitled pedestrian butts with my car. And these people are functional enough to have jobs ...

TheDonEffect

One of the problems these days with people in general is the it's not my fault mentality. Light turns green in a very busy intersection and they immediately start crossing not seeing the car that entered the intersection at yellow. Hell these days they don't even wait for their light, they just go ok walking knowing that pedestrians have the right of way. And the people who wait on the friggin street at an intersection... omg. I'm literally getting upset writing this.

zeroptzero

Texting, using a cel phone and other distracted behaviour (electronic and non-electronic) brings a $1,000 fine and a bunch of demerit points in my region. They carry it a bit too far enforcing the rules even if the car is not moving, but in the big picture of things it makes sense. Oddly enough I find the most distracted drivers on the road are Police officers glancing over at their laoptop screens regularly while moving, see it happening all the time.

DocLore

I would have to go with pedestrians are acting/feeling entitled to cross roads wherever they want regardless of traffic and/or conditions. Add that to the increased distracted pedestrians and drivers....