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CTrandomdude t1_j3y6z81 wrote

Reply to comment by topsheetisamust in 'People don't feel safe': West Hartford pledges to eliminate roadway deaths by -ctinsider

Sure. Even though You called me stupid I will be happy to elaborate. First thing is we all know all accidents and deaths will never be eliminated. No matter what you do there will be fatal accidents in the future. So to promise you are going to end them is a politically motivated lie. I will guarantee West Hartford will continue to have fatal accidents as every other populated city will.

When there is a fatal accident the police do a thorough investigation and fault and contributing factors are brought to light for each incident. Any defect or contributing factors are brought to the attention of whoever maintains the road. (State or municipality). They normally aggregate this information and remedy deficiencies as needed. It is wise for the town to do this and prioritize any solutions that could prevent further accidents. I mean they should be always doing this but nothing wrong with a fresh look.

It’s not like all of these recent accidents occurred at the same spot or due to a recent change in the area. It is more likely going to be chalked up as S**t happens. Or an unusual coincidence to have a cluster of bad accidents in such a short span. I mean I consider an accident where someone is killed as a bad accident. But somehow that was rude. Was it a good one then?

Back the the headline. “West Hartford pledges to eliminate roadway deaths”. It’s a lie.

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micwalsh t1_j3ycijy wrote

Hey - I'm the reporter of this story. I'm sorry you have issue with the headline, but I wouldn't say it's a lie to make this pledge. Vision Zero is really about doing everything you can to make a roadway safe.

In my previous story (https://www.ctinsider.com/news/article/west-hartford-fatal-crash-vision-zero-17693929.php) the mayor mentioned that part of this is the fact that human error is inevitable. The other part of this is that roadways can be made to be more forgiving, i.e., if a road is designed with traffic calming in place and speeds are reduced, it's less likely that a crash caused by human error or whatever other mitigating factor will be a fatal crash. As advocates have told me: things do happen, but things can also be put into place to ensure those things aren't the worst case scenario when they do happen.

It would obviously be a bit naïve of all of us to think that New York City, which also has committed to Vision Zero policies, would literally eliminate all roadway deaths. But that doesn't mean they, West Hartford and the other 40-something municipalities in the country that are going Vision Zero can't pledge to do their very best to make roads as safe as possible. That's really what this is about.

Happy to answer any questions on this topic in West Hartford, by the way. I've been reporting on it in-depth since June, when the town had its first pedestrian fatality of the year, and it's a topic close to my heart as I also navigate this town as a pedestrian much of the time.

Thanks for reading!

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topsheetisamust t1_j3y7vs0 wrote

I didn’t call you stupid I called you comment that.

I think the first thing you need to look over is calling this amount of deaths “a few bad accidents” sorry, call me stupid but it’s an aggressive amount that’s only growing, and literal dead people isn’t a joke. Also where do you see that police are doing “ a full investigation”

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CTrandomdude t1_j3y8hp4 wrote

The police always do a full investigation for any fatal or serious injury accident. Much more thorough than your typical accident. They have special accident reconstruction investigators. There is much at stake and usually million dollar lawsuits.

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