In yesterday's news: woman driving down the road. Her cell phone rang. She took her eyes off the road and groped around on the seat beside her, trying to find the phone. She swerved out of her lane into the bike lane on her right and struck a bicyclist, throwing him eighty-five feet. He's alive, but in intensive care. So far, the woman has been cited for negligent driving.
I'm reminded of something that happened here some years ago near where I used to live. Busy street near an elementary school. Morning and afternoon (during rush hour), many kids from the school had to cross the busy street. Dangerous, because there was no stop light or stop sign at the crosswalk, and cars moved through the area pretty fast. Local residents, noting how dangerous it was for the kids, contacted, and later, petitioned the city engineer to put in a stop light. Several times they sent somebody out during the middle of the day (noonish or early afternoon) saw no kids and little traffic, and several times they decided a stop light wasn't necessary. Finally, when a couple of kids were struck and killed, they put in a stop light.
How long does it take and how many people have to get killed or injured before somebody does something about it?