jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I've been watching some airplane investigation videos, and I'm amazed at how many things must go wrong to bring a plane down. Their are so many equipment and personnel safeguards and steps that a crash should never occur. In Italy, however, the police are first on the scene because doing anything that leads to a crash is a crime. In one case, the airport did just about everything wrong - no ground radar, disabled safety devices, insufficient signs - but the controller who was handling the crashed plane was sent to prison.

Something similar happened a few years ago with earthquake scientists. They were sent to prison (or at least sentenced) because they didn't give adequate warning about an earthquake.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

It is all politics today and unrealistic expectations of human capabilities. Anything we make can and does fail, cars break down all the time and mostly due to poor owner maintenance. But there is seldom any news on this because the car just stops with no fatality.
Then when there is a fatality like a plane going down there are an army of ambulance chaser lawyers wanting to sue and the greedy family who had to look up the name of the deceased because they hardly remembered them. Then politicians find an excuse to blame something and if re-elected will fix it. (Never does) but the sucker voters fall for the same crap election after election. Then the demand someone be found at fault and treated as a criminal. There are rare occasions it happens though and that is criminal but mostly it is an ACCIDENT. No fault it just happened.

bdo Loc: Colorado

You hit one of my hot buttons there.

There are very few accidents (i.e. acts of god without any rational explanation). Lightning qualifies in my book, and that's about it.

Why are car and truck drivers not assigned much more responsibility for the fatal events they cause? Anyone in charge of a 1,000+ lb. (up to 80,000-100,000 lb.) mass of steel rolling at up to 80+ mph has more than a casual responsibility to operate said projectile in more than a responsible manner.

My step-son (age 56) just got rear-ended by a texting teenager who never even hit the brake. Result: He has a herniated neck disk that requires 24-hour foam neck brace, constant pain. He has to sleep upright in a chair for the next 6-8 weeks. New car was totaled.

(If there were any justice, she would at least have to wear the neck brace for the same amount of time.)

Yet the mainstream press continues to report "accidents" on the highway. These are not "accidents", they are irresponsible acts while driving. And my impression is that our justice system continues to regard these acts as "accidents, and give the perps a slap on the wrist. Here in Colorado, we finally got some legislation that regards the third (fourth?) DUI/DWI as a felony. But even then it has to go through the full jury trial rigamarole.

Lightning? Act of god... Rear-ending while texting? Throw them in jail and throw away the key.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

I agree on the purposeful act of DUI or texting is not an accident. In fact I believe in such situations if a death occurs it is first degree murder and the perpetrator should die as they purposely committed an act they knew would kill.

n3eg Loc: West coast USA

What's even worse is when they assign percentages of responsibility for "accidents" - such as you being 25% responsible for the accident just by being there.

ken hubert Loc: Missouri

80% of truck/car accidents are caused by the car, if not more. Americans just can't drive worth a shit. Just look at Donna as a prime example!
Also truckers drive an average of 80,000 miles a year. Auto drivers, not even close!

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Right. There's a big difference between doing something you know is wrong and making an honest mistake. In the case of the italian controller, most of the "mistakes" were made by airport management - not installing the radar that was sitting in boxes, not repairing broken safety systems, etc.

whitewolfowner

Most crashes today are pilot error or happenings in the air that take the planes down; like storms or wind sheer.

radiumjohn Loc: Pulaski, Virginia, USA

Sometimes both parties ARE at fault. Unfortunately, in most states, only one driver gets blamed.

sr71 Loc: In Col. Juan Seguin Land

Any Dui if caught no matter if it's the first time or not, it's a felony conviction and you loose your car permanently

bersharbp Loc: Texas

Intent vs. negligence and the variance between. It is the grey area that will continue to make lawyers wealthy, forever.

machia Loc: NJ

Texting while driving should be treated like a DUI/DWI .
Hand-eye coordination is broken when you text while driving .
When traveling even at modest speeds , taking your eyes off the road for even 2 seconds could result in an accident . Leniency has to end , people are getting hurt or worse . This obsession with cell phones is just that , an obsession , which isn't healthy . Kids are spending (wasting ) countless hours on these phones .
But when it comes to operating a motor vehicle , throw the book at them . Maybe six months of hoofing it may teach them some responsibility . And it's not only kids . Texting and driving is total insanity .

Croce Loc: Earth

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

Part of the problem with the "Crime" part of almost any mishap, is intent. That said, civil court is where most of thes things wind up. My opinion is that many accidents should be redefined, and NOT be defined as such but elevated to crimes.

Bloke Loc: Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

Yep! I was rear-ended some years ago, while insured by Allstate. So was the other driver. Despite being the same company, they still adopt an adversarial approach where each party is assigned an agent to fight for them. Mine told me that they didn't have to pay if they could claim that I was even 1% responsible - basically, I left the house that day!
In the end, the agent representing the other driver just refused to provide any responses to questions, or to provide any information to 'my' agent, and she wasn't disposed to fight too hard against her own company, and I was just left high and dry.

To this day, and for the rest of my life, Allstate will never receive another penny of my money...

Oh, and DUI should be an automatic prison sentence, with the length increasing exponentially for any subsequent repeat offense.