Slashdot Mirror
What Clown On a Unicycle?
R3d M3rcury writes "The New York Times has an article about walking and using a cellphone. 'The era of the mobile gadget is making mobility that much more perilous, particularly on crowded streets and in downtown areas where multiple multitaskers veer and swerve and walk to the beat of their own devices.' But the interesting part was an experiment run by Western Washington University this past fall. There was a student who knew how to ride a unicycle and a professor who had a clown suit. They dressed a student up as a clown and had him ride his unicycle around a popular campus square. Then they asked people, 'Did you see the Unicycling Clown?' 71% of the people walking in pairs said that they had. 51% of the people walking alone said that they had. But only 25% of the people talking on a cellphone said that they saw the unicycling clown. On the other hand, when asked 'Did you see anything unusual?' only about one person in three mentioned a unicycling clown. So maybe unicycling clowns aren't enough of a distraction at Western Washington University..."
How can a right turn accident ever not be the fault of the driver?
Yes she might have been distracted and yes she might have walked into the turning circle of the truck, however, one cannot assume every pedestrian knows how a truck swings, I see lots of people choosing a bad position at a crossing because they aren't aware of how a truck turns - but this doesn't change the fact that the truck probably shouldn't have been in that crossing anyways, if she wanted to cross she would in most places around the world have right of way.
Here in Denmark the truck driver would definitely have been found at fault in that kind of accident.