Life size Frogger

"Chalo" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/14/MNCJUF077.DTL&tsp=1

Body lies by side of I-880 more than 5 hours before being found

Marisa Lagos, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, January 14, 2008

SAN LEANDRO - A body found on Interstate 880 in San Leandro today was
that of a man apparently struck and killed several hours earlier as he
tried to cross the freeway after his car got a flat tire, authorities
said.

The 28-year-old Livermore man was hit by a driver who realized she had
run over something but did not know it was a person, the California
Highway Patrol said.

<snippage>

"She didn't realize what she'd hit," he said. "Then this morning after
we found the body, we looked through incidents from last night in the
area and matched up the color of her car (to evidence left at the
scene)," Johnson said.

It does not appear the woman committed a crime, he said.

----------------------------------

I call [censored]. How can you hit and kill a man who is trying to
cross a road and claim you never even saw him? "Didn't expect to see
someone there", sure. "Couldn't stop in time", sad but predictable.
"Hit 'something' in the road but don't know what it was"-- umm, no.

Lucky for her, the cops are fantastic at bending over backwards to
preserve an insane way of life. They are _much_ better at looking out
for the interests of cars than they are at looking out for the
interests of people.

Perhaps the cars will outlive us.

Chalo

Even if she didn't think she hit a person(which is ludicrous), the impact
from hitting a man-sized object is enough to make most people stop to check
damage. A medium sized dog darted across a road in front of me and I hit
him, and the impact was enough to bend the fender on my truck. I would
imagine a 150 pound man would destroy a car at freeway speed.

But trying to cross a freeway on foot is pretty dangerous.

Gooserider said:

Quoted message said:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/14/MNCJUF077...

Even if she didn't think she hit a person(which is ludicrous), the impact
from hitting a man-sized object is enough to make most people stop to check
damage.

Accoring to the article, she not only stopped, but she called the cops
to report an object in the road. A CHP officer showed up, but he
didn't see the dead guy so he let her drive home.

Quoted message said:

But trying to cross a freeway on foot is pretty dangerous.

Especially in CA where folks drive 85mph whenever they're not stuck in
traffic.

I see lots of places even in cities where you'd have to walk a few
miles to go just across the freeway. Out in the far-flung 'burbs and
countryside, I've seen places where walking to the nearest approved
crossing and back to the other side from where you were could be more
than 10 miles. Such situations seem more than a little bit skewed to
the convenience of freeway drivers.

Chalo

Quoted message said:

miles to go just across the freeway. Out in the far-flung 'burbs and
countryside, I've seen places where walking to the nearest approved
crossing and back to the other side from where you were could be more
than 10 miles. Such situations seem more than a little bit skewed to
the convenience of freeway drivers.

I once attended a conference in Orlando, across the freeway from the rest
of town, with the nearest crossing five miles away. I was told that a
pedestrian overpass had been proposed, but the taxi companies had defeated
it.

--
mac the naïf

Chalo said:

I see lots of places even in cities where you'd have to walk a few
miles to go just across the freeway. Out in the far-flung 'burbs and
countryside, I've seen places where walking to the nearest approved
crossing and back to the other side from where you were could be more
than 10 miles. Such situations seem more than a little bit skewed to
the convenience of freeway drivers.

Agreed. And it can be worse. I live just off a busy arterial (4
lanes plus center turn lane). There's a pedestrian crossing about 1/4
mile to the east. But the nest one to the west is two miles away.
Tons of shopping plazas and stores along there, but zero pedestrian
facilities.

And when it was proposed to add some islands to the center turn lane
(for, among other things, a safe "halfway" point for pedestrians)
people said "Anyone who wants to cross that street is crazy."

- Frank Krygowski

Chalo said:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/14/MNCJUF077...

Body lies by side of I-880 more than 5 hours before being found

Marisa Lagos, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, January 14, 2008

SAN LEANDRO - A body found on Interstate 880 in San Leandro today was
that of a man apparently struck and killed several hours earlier as he
tried to cross the freeway after his car got a flat tire, authorities
said.

The 28-year-old Livermore man was hit by a driver who realized she had
run over something but did not know it was a person, the California
Highway Patrol said.

<snippage>

"She didn't realize what she'd hit," he said. "Then this morning after
we found the body, we looked through incidents from last night in the
area and matched up the color of her car (to evidence left at the
scene)," Johnson said.

It does not appear the woman committed a crime, he said.

----------------------------------

I call [censored]. How can you hit and kill a man who is trying to
cross a road and claim you never even saw him? "Didn't expect to see
someone there", sure. "Couldn't stop in time", sad but predictable.
"Hit 'something' in the road but don't know what it was"-- umm, no.

I hit a rabbit coming back from Loretta Lynn's ranch and if I hadn't
have seen it dart out, I'd have swore it was a seal-a-mealed quart of
soup. Such a nasty pop as the skin burst and the insides met the road.
Maybe hitting a person if you don't see them only feels like you ran
over a trash can full of restaurant leavings--an honest mistake. ;-)