Sunday, January 15, 2023

Rep. Bonamici Mysteriously "hit by car." Where's the Driver?

After a driver struck Representative Bonamici and her husband as they attempted to cross the street in a crosswalk (marked or unmarked is not specified), the news overwhelmingly erased the driver, ascribing the crash and injury to a car operating by an unknown and even unknowable agency.

headlines on twitter

The news editor at OPB did say the "driver cooperated, not cited or arrested."

So I guess that's the "get out of jail" card and "free pass."

But everybody else used the "hit by car" formula and erased the driver.

When we talk about the totalizing power of our autoism, this is it. It's just an innocent oopsie - no harm, no foul. A driver is rarely responsible for employing potentially lethal force. Carry on.

See more on erasing the driver here.

3 comments:

mark said...

When the car is in total autonomous mode, self-driving, do we still say driver? Who is legally responsible?

Salem Breakfast on Bikes said...

That is not yet settled, and it seems full robot cars are a ways off yet. Displaced responsibility is a real looming problem, and something we have not fully faced. (A few notes on the problem of robot cars are here.)

Anonymous said...

Bike Portland with more detail:

https://bikeportland.org/2023/01/18/congresswoman-struck-by-a-driver-while-walking-in-northwest-portland-369411

Looks like a left hook from 19th southbound onto Everett eastbound.