I hate how the manipulative term "accident" is normalized. This was no accident. No automobile collision is ever an accident. There is negligence and there is malice, and this sounds like both.
this post was submitted on 09 Nov 2025
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I mean definitely mistakes happen, when we start saying that everything is on purpose that’s a big problem. However, one of my biggest irritations with people who fight against better infrastructure is how they all suck at driving. They’re terrible at it and refuse to get better but also demand that everything is built in their favour. That negligence absolutely does lead to preventable injuries and loss of life and far too many of these “accidents” are exactly as you say.
I’ll start paying attention to those idiots when they start putting in some vague amount of effort. At this point they can’t even turn left without cutting the oncoming lane.
I agree although i will say not every collision is caused by negligence or malice, at least by the driver. Negligence to make roads safer by changing their design, speed limit, or other factors is an important distinction. For example a road that 80km/h with many curves hills and bends in it should have certain areas with a reduced speed limit, such as where hills or curves dramatically reduce sightlines or have intersections close to those tight sight lines. This negligence is ultimately on what ever government agency is designing and maintaining roads and less on the driver.
A better word is "road murder".
No. That is worse.
Murder is a specific crime that needs to be done with intent. Not a good replacement for describing all automobile collisions.
Collision is a neutral term. A good choice from being neutral. Negligence is another good one. The term is biased against the driver, but not in a way that is so vitriolic to stop the term being adopted widely.
I don't know if it's negligence though, if many car accidents are caused by drivers looking on their phones (that to me seems quite damn intentional stupidity) and crashing into pedestrians and bicyclists because the first named ones didn't stop.
Driver inattention is negligence. Road design that allows a lapse in concentration to cause injuries or fatalities is negligent design. Drivers failing to follow the rules of the roads is a sign of negligent training. Unsafe drivers continuing to maintain a license is also negligence.
There is no way for an automobile to collide with something without there being negligence or malice on the part of some involved party.
All collisions are avoidable. Calling them accidents implies otherwise.
Here in my part of the US road design is usually decent for protecting pedestrians, and my family has been doing a lot of walking since pandemic.
But now my youngest is in college, and he’s continued the “long walk” tradition. But the town he’s in has no sidewalks outside of campus, has roads without even a shoulder. Now he’s at much higher risk of a moment of inattentiveness by some drunk or texting college kid
I don't know if willfully calling while operating a tonne-heavy armoured vehicle, counts as mere negligence, malice maybe.
malice is an evil intent. That isn't the case when someone texts and drives. They are choosing to impair themselves, but with the intent of continuing to drive normally.
Negligence is a failure to exercise a duty of care. Malice is an evil intent or extreme recklessness, which I don't think texting reaches.
But it is extremely reckless to text while driving. You're then not taking attention to the road, and it contributes greatly to collisions.
carbrain notwithstanding, the standard for reckless disregard in law is much greater than texting while driving.
And both can be negligence, the legal term for failing to take proper care. You also have "gross negligence" when you have gone above and beyond in failing to prevent an accident. Like if you ignored signs and barricades and drove onto a closed road, which led to an unintentional collision with a cyclist in a road race.
Malice is when you wanted to caus some kind of harm -- like "let's scare that pedestrian by driving close to him... Oops I hit him." Even though you didn't want to hit him, wanting to scare him is intent, and malice.
Replying for the benefit of the commenter above you.
To be frank there is a curb where it happened. But only inside the bend... and the accident happened outside. It's a steep-ish slope, and the road is muddy... the guy just got his license and played a football game that he won. So he took in a couple buddies and boosted down the road hoping to celebrate, I assume -too fast for the tires to keep friction with the asphalt. Imho, here the immediate problem is the lack of risk awareness. The second problem is the absence of speed bumps on this particular road section. And the problem at the root of it all, you know it
Also I take back that he'll be shunned for the rest of his life -so far, thank god no one died. And he is young, so he'll be forgiven. I dearly hope this sticks with him and everyone in the village