this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2025
611 points (98.9% liked)

Fuck Cars

11938 readers
527 users here now

A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!

Rules

1. Be CivilYou may not agree on ideas, but please do not be needlessly rude or insulting to other people in this community.

2. No hate speechDon't discriminate or disparage people on the basis of sex, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, or sexuality.

3. Don't harass peopleDon't follow people you disagree with into multiple threads or into PMs to insult, disparage, or otherwise attack them. And certainly don't doxx any non-public figures.

4. Stay on topicThis community is about cars, their externalities in society, car-dependency, and solutions to these.

5. No repostsDo not repost content that has already been posted in this community.

Moderator discretion will be used to judge reports with regard to the above rules.

Posting Guidelines

In the absence of a flair system on lemmy yet, let’s try to make it easier to scan through posts by type in here by using tags:

Recommended communities:

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

The grieving parents of a 7-year-old child who died hours after being hit by a car were charged with involuntary manslaughter after allowing him and his brother, 10, to walk home unaccompanied by an adult from a nearby grocery store.

(page 2) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Retrograde@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I bet it's in a Republican shithole city in a Republican shithole state?

I don't even have to check

[–] calcopiritus@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Was the driver driving a child-killing American truck? If so, both the driver and car company should be charged with voluntary manslaughter.

They knew this was going to happen, yet they still bought and produced the child-killing tank.

[–] outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com -3 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

Look, americans are proud R strategists. Maybe you sluggish europeans dont know what that means, but we need ways to cull the weak before we waste too nany resources on useless eaters, so designated zones and tools, in/with which it's considered okay to murder children are an absolute necessity. Doing it with our cars, integrqting it into our transit system, more than makes up for the loss of efficiency from not using trains and bikes. So how do YOU propose we murder children, then, huh?

Do you think we should just stop killing children on purpose? Fucking yankeephobic eurotrash.

[–] showmeyourkizinti@startrek.website 56 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

This some serious bullshit not even the cops can't be that heartless ... Oh wait the parents are black ... in North Carolina ...

[–] RadioFreeArabia@lemmy.world 6 points 23 hours ago

Racism explains a lot of court decisions in the US. Jim Crow laws never truly went away.

[–] outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com -3 points 16 hours ago

Also, there are designated child culling zones.

[–] 5too@lemmy.world 104 points 1 day ago (3 children)

there is no evidence of speeding or wrongdoing on the part of the driver, therefore no charges have been filed.

He hit a pedestrian. If you cannot react to a pedestrian entering the road unexpectedly, especially at a crosswalk, you are, by definition, driving recklessly.

[–] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 29 points 1 day ago (7 children)

The article says they attempted to cross between the crosswalks. A witness said the younger child jumped into the street. There's only so much reaction even the most alert driver can do.

[–] Don_alForno@feddit.org 13 points 1 day ago (8 children)

You see unaccompanied children, you take your foot off the gas and hover over the brake pedal.

load more comments (8 replies)
[–] redwattlebird@lemmings.world 29 points 1 day ago

Then the speed needs to be reduced.

[–] 5too@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

Fair point, it was indeed between crosswalks. But from the sound of it, the kids had been waiting to cross, and the younger kid jumped out on his own.

The older kid saw the danger, meaning the car should have been able to see at least one kid too. I maintain that if you can't react safely to kids you can see jumping unexpectedly off the curb as you drive by, you have no business driving.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] Evotech@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (5 children)

It doesn’t matter where I’m from, you are supposed to be able to stop

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] Zacryon@feddit.org 18 points 1 day ago

Reasons why this community exists.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com -3 points 16 hours ago

Oh, so you think we shouldnt have designated places and tools for murdering children?

Why do you hate america and freedom?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 46 points 1 day ago

City makes walking on foot a death sentence, offloads responsibility on people foolish enough to produce life in a world that wants us to die.

[–] ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one 38 points 1 day ago

“In such cases, adults must be held accountable for their responsibilities to ensure a safe environment for their children,” police said in a statement.

Okay, I get the rational behind it.

Gastonia police declined to comment to NBC News, but said in a statement that “there is no evidence of speeding or wrongdoing on the part of the driver, therefore no charges have been filed. The driver continues to be cooperative and the incident remains under active investigation by the Gastonia Police Department’s Traffic Division.”

Except when you drive a car, fuck it! You can do whatever you want. As a driver of a vehicle that can kill people, you don't have be responsble for anything.

[–] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 51 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

USA is the premiere shithole country.

edit: It's kind of amazing how many people in here take NBC quoting cops as fact. The cops' tale is obviously bullshit as usual. They're just reciting whatever the old man said. Ofc he thinks the kid just jumped in front of him. The old coot probably had no idea what was even happening: "I was just driving along when this colored boy jumped under my truck...." Cops are like, "Yes, sir, we understand. It happens all the time. Best we can do is lock up the parents." ---> NBC.

edit2: Seriously tho, I feel bad for the driver too. This is a good example of how car dependency is not good for the elderly. Let's get that driver out of a car and onto a train. Ok I gotta get on with my life...

[–] pleasegoaway@lemm.ee 21 points 1 day ago

Ahhhh, that makes sense now: the child was black.

Gotta get those black people in prison and give them records.

[–] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 147 points 2 days ago (1 children)

“In such cases, adults must be held accountable for their responsibilities to ensure a safe environment for their children,” police said in a statement.

That's ... beyond callous and (hopefully) has no legal standing, even in the USA.

Let's fix it:

The "adults" who continue building car-friendly environments that are positively dangerous to pedestrians need to be held accountable for their responsibilities to ensure a safe environment.

[–] Buske@lemmy.world 48 points 1 day ago (1 children)

So the city, as a group of adults, failed also to ensure a safe environment, should also be arrested.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] justgohomealready@sh.itjust.works 213 points 2 days ago (10 children)

At seven I went to school and back home on foot and alone, about a mile, everyday. I did once have a close call with a car that didn't stop for a crosswalk.

Are parents supposed to accompany their kids at all time until they are 18?

No but North Carolina cops will arrest a black parent to avoid having to arrest a white driver.

[–] Maestro@fedia.io 128 points 2 days ago (7 children)

According to 'murica, until 16. Then they can drive their own car.

load more comments (7 replies)
load more comments (8 replies)
[–] Gammelfisch@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot...I was riding my bicycle alone at age 7.

[–] manxu@piefed.social 112 points 2 days ago (1 children)

A while back I watched a video about jaywalking. The idea was that, before cars were very common, people would just walk around the street and cars had to go around them. As cars became more common, car owners wanted to get rid of the people on the street, so they invented the term and offense jaywalking. Take something that poor people do (like walking instead of driving) and turn it into an offense.

This is basically the same thing. Make the parents responsible for what was a driver's fault on a road that shouldn't have been built the way it was in what must be a residential area - given that the kids just crossed the street from house to store. You have to turn the victim into the perpetrator, because looking at facts makes the wrong people look guilty.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] huppakee@lemm.ee 76 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Sounds like evil inception, first the nightmare of losing your child and then the nightmare of possibly losing your job and house etc. I hope they at least don't have to go through the nightmare of prison (which they would likely have to go through alone, since there is no couples-prison). Evil evil evil

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone 80 points 2 days ago (5 children)

What??? In Switzerland we walked to school by ourselves at age of 4.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] Treetrimmer@sh.itjust.works 25 points 1 day ago

The maga agenda in action ❤️

[–] topherclay@lemmy.world 126 points 2 days ago (3 children)

They gotta blame the people who designed the city. If these kids were a small fraction of the same age and in Japan they would be on TV for braving their first solo trip into the market to buy a vegetable for dinner. It would be a cute TV show called "Old Enough" on Netflix with English subtitles instead of a cruel reality on this side of the same planet where a kid is now dead.

That part of it isn't the fault of the parents, but the fault of the society we have created.

Btw that TV show is a few decades old but my point is that the world is possible. We don't need to be like Japan was in that TV show, but we do need more walkable cities.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] Armok_the_bunny@lemmy.world 93 points 2 days ago (2 children)

The 76-year-old driver will not face any charges.

[–] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 67 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (6 children)

TBF, the child ran onto the road (a typical US road that encourages drivers to drive fast and be oblivious of pedestrians, I guess), and - according to the police - the driver was neither speeding nor under the influence and is "cooperative".

But to charge the parents with involuntary manslaughter for letting their children walk 2 blocks is madness, and makes me question the police department's objectivity, to put it mildly.

My guess is at the very least the driver's reaction and/or eyesight was impaired due to old age.

[–] Saleh@feddit.org 76 points 2 days ago (2 children)

You see children next to the road, you slow down. You are the adult operating the deadly machine. You have a duty to be extra careful around kids.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] SpicyLizards@reddthat.com 65 points 2 days ago (7 children)

Gastonia police declined to comment to NBC News, but said in a statement that “there is no evidence of speeding or wrongdoing on the part of the driver, therefore no charges have been filed. The driver continues to be cooperative and the incident remains under active investigation by the Gastonia Police Department’s Traffic Division.”

Fucking insane. Ancient driver must be good, we must blame someone. How about the folks? They seem to be having a good run!

[–] Saleh@feddit.org 71 points 2 days ago (1 children)

During my driving lessons in Germany i learned that you always have to slow down around kids. Kids are unpredictable. Kids do not pay attention all the time. Kids struggle with estimating distances and speeds of cars coming your way.

Unless the case is something like "Kids jumped from a bridge right in front of your car." There is no way that the driver couldn't have done something to prevent the accident or at least form it being a fatal accident.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (6 replies)
[–] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 91 points 2 days ago (3 children)

This doesn't serve justice, in any way.

Why were the children trying to walk between crosswalks? I'd bet because the only crosswalks anywhere in the area are at stoplights and way too far apart. A painted cross wall at minimum, or a HAWK light that stops vehicle traffic should have been there. But those are too expensive until multiple people are killed by traffic, it takes a lot of blood to get human-cebtric infrastructure installed in this country.

The crosswalk directly leading to the middle school near me was known by the school and the neighborhood to be dangerous due to traffic speed, and the community had been fighting for a HAWK light to be installed by the county for nearly a decade. They even widened and replaced the road during that time and still refused to install it (although they did install the underground conduit necessary when doing the roadwork). It took 4 children total being killed by vehicles outside of school hours before they finally agreed to install a HAWK light there.

Charging the parents doesn't do any public good. I doubt they're going to find a full jury that could convict unless there's some underlying information about the parents trying to kill the kids or some shit like that. I can't imagine a jury of 12 would unanimously convict.l based on the info provided.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] Jollyllama@lemmy.world 46 points 2 days ago (1 children)

NC is a hellscape of stroads and highways. Walking anywhere there is a stressful situation. I'd walk down to the local park and needed to cross 2 lanes of traffic at a crosswalk. The speed limit was 35 yet people flew through doing 50 and this is with medians and a crosswalk. The only way to cross was to begin walking out and hopefully they brake for you.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›