I don’t want the sarcasm of the title of my post to obscure the tragedy of a man losing his life, but rather to point out the ridiculousness way the story was reported. Greater Greater Washington is the gold standard for watching out for this shoddy reporting, advocating in its own subtle way, a change in the way the media reports automobile-pedestrian interactions and the way we react to them:

Vehicle hits man, reporter ignores driver: “A man was struck by a vehicle and fatally injured early this morning on Route 29 in Burtonsville” … “The vehicle that hit the man did not stop and has not been found…”

As far as I know, the vehicle really had no choice in the matter of whether it should have hit the man or stop to check on him. Outlets like GGW and Streetsblog serve to point out the injustice of reporting such incidents as “accidents” (which imply that no one could have taken actions to avoid them) or police not charging drivers who commit them.  The ONLY car crash that seems like it could legitimately be called an accident would be one caused by someone who has some sort of surprise seizure that they’ve never had before, which seems like it could have been the case in this one.  Otherwise… cause a crash that results in severe injury or death or a pedestrian and you should be charged.  Severely.

(Edited to add)

I had almost forgotten about this study which I pass along with no small amount of schadenfreude:

A new AAA study of aggressive driving found some interesting conclusions:

About 60 percent of traffic fatalities are related to aggressive driving in Pennsylvania.

Bucks and Delaware Counties had the highest percentages of deaths (62 percent) due to aggressive driving in Southeastern Pennsylvania.

Philadelphia’s rate (47 percent) was lower than any of the nearby counties to its north and west. (Emphasis mine)

This is related to a point that a house hunting friend of mine brought up at dinner last week. More people may die by shootings in Philadelphia than they do in the suburbs, but WAY more people die by traffic deaths in the suburbs than die by shootings in Philadelphia.  And, if you know where not to go at certain times (late night, for example) you can pretty reasonably expect not to get shot.  But in the suburbs, where you have to drive almost everywhere, you take your life in your hands every time you leave your driveway.