POSTED: 6:43 am EST February 7, 2008
UPDATED: 8:05 am EST February 7, 2008
The accident happened around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in southwest Atlanta, police spokesman James Polite said. Details of how John Edwards was hit by the bus were not immediately available, but witnesses told police he was dragged about 20 feet.
When police arrived they found Edwards under the rear of the bus.
Neighbors told WSB-TV Channel 2 reporter Ashley Hayes that buses speed through the neighborhood.
"They come down this street too fast," said Charles Jones, a friend of the victim's family.
"They drive way too fast," agreed neighbor Christina Bryan. "All the cars, all the buses; they drive way too fast on these roads."
The boy was taken to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston, but was expected to recover.
"The boy will be fine, mostly just cuts and bruises," Polite said. "He's scared to death more than anything."
The bus driver was also taken to Grady Memorial Hospital with head injuries after being assaulted by witnesses, said Joselyn Baker, spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority.
I see this kind of shit all the time too; people who drive through residential areas too fast. It's about time one of them got his ass beaten for it. If I had my way, any asshole that sped through a residential area would get an automatic caning, and a lot worse if he hits somebody.
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Down my road, it's a 30 MPH zone with speed bumps every 30 metres or so. I've seen idiot kids and people in SUVs do at least 40 at times, and that's even during school emptying time. Hell, I nearly had one dickhead ram my side as I was pulling out, because it was so urgent for him to get to work, he decided to do near 50, round a corner, in a pedestrian prone zone.
And then there's the fucktards who feel they have to overtake at 70/80 when someone actually obeys the main road speed limit of 60. So you can see even at dual carriageway and motorway speeds, these people need to go faster. I'd laugh at them for wasting more fuel for marginal gain in punctuality, but the potential for death makes this no laughing matter.
Don't they have speed bumps in the residential areas? We have them here in many places and if you put one every 30 or 50 meters, anybody who tries to speed will have his car bottom ripped out from under him. There are two schools right next to where I live, one is at the end of a dead end cul-de-sac next to my apartment building. The other is some way off along the major street through this residential area and there are speed bumps on the road at both ends of the school property. Speed through, wreck your car and fuck your insurance, won't pay a dime. Simple and effective.
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I'm just glad the kid is okay. I couldn't give two shits about the bus driver. They could have beaten the negligent fucker half to death for all I care. Speeding in residential areas - or any area with a large amount of traffic, for that matter - like that is fucking retarded thing to do. If people speed out on empty highways and kill themselves, fucking excellent. The more idiots who remove themselves from the genepool, the better. But this shit ranks up there with drunk driving.
Edi wrote:Don't they have speed bumps in the residential areas? We have them here in many places and if you put one every 30 or 50 meters, anybody who tries to speed will have his car bottom ripped out from under him. There are two schools right next to where I live, one is at the end of a dead end cul-de-sac next to my apartment building. The other is some way off along the major street through this residential area and there are speed bumps on the road at both ends of the school property. Speed through, wreck your car and fuck your insurance, won't pay a dime. Simple and effective.
I wonder why they don't have those in the US, at least that I've seen. They're pretty common in parking lots, but not on streets. And it is a damned good idea; presumably, the size of the speed bump could be tuned to the speed limit. This may be an idea to agitate for in my city.
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Edi wrote:Don't they have speed bumps in the residential areas? We have them here in many places and if you put one every 30 or 50 meters, anybody who tries to speed will have his car bottom ripped out from under him. There are two schools right next to where I live, one is at the end of a dead end cul-de-sac next to my apartment building. The other is some way off along the major street through this residential area and there are speed bumps on the road at both ends of the school property. Speed through, wreck your car and fuck your insurance, won't pay a dime. Simple and effective.
I wonder why they don't have those in the US, at least that I've seen. They're pretty common in parking lots, but not on streets. And it is a damned good idea; presumably, the size of the speed bump could be tuned to the speed limit. This may be an idea to agitate for in my city.
They're on plenty of roads around here, mostly the residential ones. But there are people who argue against them, and I honestly don't remember the arguments they used so I can't really judge them. I do remember one time though when they put in speed bumps, but took them back out later due to citizen complaints.
As to the lack of speed bumps in school zones, that may be a factor in where the school is placed. They may be in generally residential areas, but the streets they're actually on aren't residential. And even some of them are fairly major thruways. So it may not be practical to put in speed bumps for them. Though there are schools along residential streets that do have them, I've seen.
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Of course you can't have them on all major roads, but where you can put them, it takes care of speeding. If someone bitches about them, they can be told to fuck off essentially. You can use the "So you want to be able to speed in areas where kids will be in danger if you do?" attack on them and if they complain that that's not what they meant, you can then ask them "So what's wrong with the speed limit being enforced through speed bumps?"
I guarantee they won't have an aswer to that that won't make them look like a giant fucking asshole.
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Admiral Valdemar wrote:Down my road, it's a 30 MPH zone with speed bumps every 30 metres or so. I've seen idiot kids and people in SUVs do at least 40 at times, and that's even during school emptying time. Hell, I nearly had one dickhead ram my side as I was pulling out, because it was so urgent for him to get to work, he decided to do near 50, round a corner, in a pedestrian prone zone.
And then there's the fucktards who feel they have to overtake at 70/80 when someone actually obeys the main road speed limit of 60. So you can see even at dual carriageway and motorway speeds, these people need to go faster. I'd laugh at them for wasting more fuel for marginal gain in punctuality, but the potential for death makes this no laughing matter.
As far as speeding on highways in the US goes, the state of Indiana did some research after it raised the speed limits on the interstates by 5 mph. It found that the faster traffic moves, the less accidents there are. However, the number of fatalities in those accidents rise. So essentially, the faster traffic is moving, the less chance you have of wrecking, but if you do you have a better chance of dying.
Jadeite wrote:As far as speeding on highways in the US goes, the state of Indiana did some research after it raised the speed limits on the interstates by 5 mph. It found that the faster traffic moves, the less accidents there are. However, the number of fatalities in those accidents rise. So essentially, the faster traffic is moving, the less chance you have of wrecking, but if you do you have a better chance of dying.
That is about what I'd expect, but it's quite interesting to see a proper study being done on the subject. You wouldn't have a link, would you?
"It's not evil for God to do it. Or for someone to do it at God's command."- Jonathan Boyd on baby-killing
"you guys are fascinated with the use of those "rules of logic" to the extent that you don't really want to discussus anything."- GC
"I do not believe Russian Roulette is a stupid act" - Embracer of Darkness
"Viagra commercials appear to save lives" - tharkûn on US health care.
Edi wrote:You can use the "So you want to be able to speed in areas where kids will be in danger if you do?" attack on them and if they complain that that's not what they meant, you can then ask them "So what's wrong with the speed limit being enforced through speed bumps?"
Speed bumps can cause damage to vehicles that have insufficient clearance. And instead of allowing vehicles to maintain a constant, safe speed, they may encourage traffic shocks by forcing vehicles to slow below the posted speed limit.
Darth Wong wrote:
That is about what I'd expect, but it's quite interesting to see a proper study being done on the subject. You wouldn't have a link, would you?
I looked around, but unfortunately the Indianapolis Star wants users to purchase access to their archives, and this was back in 2005, so I'm afraid I can't present the actual evidence.
The apartment complex we live in has 2 STOP signs on the road leading out, and they are almost always ignored by everyone driving out, except for the people who actually work here. There are also 3 speed bumps (2 within 100 feet or so of each other) , but none of the speed bumps are near any STOP signs.
Most people blow through the one STOP sign and drift past the second. It seems to me that ideally, the speed bumps should be placed near or at the STOP signs themselves, because it would force people to at least slow down on the way past.
Of course, the speed limit on the property here is 15 miles an hour, but very few people follow that either. It's amazing no one has been hit by a car yet, considering there are a lot of kids who walk to and from school from here.
Edi wrote:You can use the "So you want to be able to speed in areas where kids will be in danger if you do?" attack on them and if they complain that that's not what they meant, you can then ask them "So what's wrong with the speed limit being enforced through speed bumps?"
Speed bumps can cause damage to vehicles that have insufficient clearance. And instead of allowing vehicles to maintain a constant, safe speed, they may encourage traffic shocks by forcing vehicles to slow below the posted speed limit.
How much of a fucking moron are you? The problem is not driving at constant safe speed in residential areas, but driving at way the fuck over the speed limit in residential areas, which puts pedestrians and children in particular at risk. So enforcing the speed limit via speed bumps is the only realistic, efficient alternative and if that causes traffic inconvenience to asshole drivers or morons who expect they have some sort of divine right to drive whatever low-slung piece of shit wherever the fuck they please, then that's just too fucking bad. Normal, well tailored speed bumps are not a problem for any car with normal clearance that is driving att he appropriate designated speed and those speed bumps are supposed to be a problem for anything that does not fit that description! One part of that problem is damage serious enough to render the vehicle completely inoperable, that's the fucking point!
What part of that do you not understand, imbecile?
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–Darth Wong to vivftp
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The GOP has a problem with anyone coming out of the closet. –18-till-I-die
I find this idea of insufficient clearance baffling as well. How high are these speed bumps that they are an issue?? You can't miss the ones around here. They are painted white, contrasting nicely with the blacktop of the road, they are marked with signs and they are no more than 4-6 inches high, at the most. The only way you will cause damage is by racing over them.
Darth Wong wrote:
That is about what I'd expect, but it's quite interesting to see a proper study being done on the subject. You wouldn't have a link, would you?
I looked around, but unfortunately the Indianapolis Star wants users to purchase access to their archives, and this was back in 2005, so I'm afraid I can't present the actual evidence.
Although the numbers noticeably vary, almost all research efforts have concluded that the lower 55 mph speed limits have saved lives relative to the return to higher speed limits (1, 2). Some of the most recent work by Kockelman and Bottom (3) concluded that a speed limit increase from 55 to 65 mph resulted (on average) in roughly a 3% increase in the accident rate and a 24% increase in the probability of a fatality once an accident occurred. The Kockelman/Bottom study also estimated that speed limit increases from to 75 mph resulted in a lower (relative to the 55 to 65 mph increase) 0.64% increase in the accident rate and in a lower 12% increase in the probability of fatal injury once an accident occurred. The authors speculated that the lower increases from 65 to 75 mph speed limits may have been the result of drivers' heightened awareness of risk at higher speeds or that roads assigned the higher 75 mph in their study’s sample may have been inherently safer.
Note that the increase from 65 to 75 also increased crashes, by much less than the increase from 55 to 65. It's possible that Indiana had different numbers, or that the paper was just guilty of bad journalism.
also interestingly:
Drivers from high-income households ($75,000 per year or greater) where found to be more likely to normally drive faster under all three speed-limit postings considered.
Having a higher income resulted in about 2 mph higher normal speeds for 55 mph and 65 mph speed limits and a little over 1 mph higher speed for interstates with 70 mph speed limits. This could be reflecting their higher value of time or perhaps higher vehicle quality.
Drivers from lower-income households ($30,000 per year or greater) where found to be more likely to normally drive slower on interstates with 55 mph speed limits. However, this variable was not highly significant (p-value of 0.12) and the effect on normal speed was less than 1 mph. Again, this could be a result of value of time and vehicle quality.
Knockelman and Bottom, which can be found here, and is exhaustively tedious.
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Several roads 'round these parts with a 25 MPH speed limit are equipped with speed bumps. You can hit them at exactly 25 MPH and not spill your coffee. But at 30, you'll be wiping non-dairy creamer out of your hair. You know, it's almost as if some...person...designed...no, engineered the speed bumps to be constructed in such a way that you could drive over them while obeying the speed limit. Remarkable, that.
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alexholker wrote:
Speed bumps can cause damage to vehicles that have insufficient clearance. And instead of allowing vehicles to maintain a constant, safe speed, they may encourage traffic shocks by forcing vehicles to slow below the posted speed limit.
Wow, you must be ignorant AND retarded. Speed bumps enforce a SPEED LIMIT which means that if you're traveling at the speed limit they really have no effect on you. In this thread we're specifically talking about residential areas which aren't supposed to have thick traffic in the first place. If by "traffic shock" you mean "slow down", then you have missed that getting traffic to slow down is the point here.
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The thing is, the speed bumps installed where I live don't stop these jokers in their SUVs. They don't even slow down, they just rumble right across. Especially the one guy with his Hummer (incidentally, the damn thing barely fits in his garage). I think he likes to show off by thumping over the bumps.
Kodiak wrote:Wow, you must be ignorant AND retarded. Speed bumps enforce a SPEED LIMIT which means that if you're traveling at the speed limit they really have no effect on you.
Not all vehicles are identical, are they? Different vehicles will have different speeds at which they can cross the speed bumps without effect.
If by "traffic shock" you mean "slow down", then you have missed that getting traffic to slow down is the point here.
Getting traffic to slow down is not a problem, if that reduction is uniform. Creating choke points where the flow of traffic has to slow down can be a problem, because the drivers do not have perfect reaction times. A driver will not slow down at the exact moment that the driver ahead of him begins to slow down, and they may reduce their speed slightly slower than the driver ahead of them. These errors accumulate along the traffic stream, causing a "traffic shock".
Kodiak wrote:Wow, you must be ignorant AND retarded. Speed bumps enforce a SPEED LIMIT which means that if you're traveling at the speed limit they really have no effect on you.
Not all vehicles are identical, are they? Different vehicles will have different speeds at which they can cross the speed bumps without effect.
If by "traffic shock" you mean "slow down", then you have missed that getting traffic to slow down is the point here.
Getting traffic to slow down is not a problem, if that reduction is uniform. Creating choke points where the flow of traffic has to slow down can be a problem, because the drivers do not have perfect reaction times. A driver will not slow down at the exact moment that the driver ahead of him begins to slow down, and they may reduce their speed slightly slower than the driver ahead of them. These errors accumulate along the traffic stream, causing a "traffic shock".
You're still looking up and needing binoculars to see the point whizzing past far above your head. What part of "residential area, light traffic, speed bumps to enforce limits" do you not understand, fucktard? IF you have a low-slung vehicle that cannot handle speed bumps, then switch to something else. Or approach the speed bumps slower. Or move the fuck out of the area to someplace where they don't have them. Were you born that stupid or did you have to practice?
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Why is it so goddamned hard to get little assholes like you to admit it when you fuck up? Is it pride? What gives you the right to have any pride?
–Darth Wong to vivftp
GOP message? Why don't they just come out of the closet: FASCISTS R' US –Patrick Degan
The GOP has a problem with anyone coming out of the closet. –18-till-I-die
Not all vehicles are identical, are they? Different vehicles will have different speeds at which they can cross the speed bumps without effect.
But are there vehicles that cannot cross speed bumps period? If not, then I don't see why any driver would be in danger of damaging their ride by going at the wrong speed. If you don't know how fast your car should go over a speed bump, then why are you driving it in the first place?
Moreover, you wouldn't happen to know what those speed differences are, would you? I seriously doubt that they are significant enough to cause an issue.
Kodiak wrote:Wow, you must be ignorant AND retarded. Speed bumps enforce a SPEED LIMIT which means that if you're traveling at the speed limit they really have no effect on you.
Not all vehicles are identical, are they? Different vehicles will have different speeds at which they can cross the speed bumps without effect.
If by "traffic shock" you mean "slow down", then you have missed that getting traffic to slow down is the point here.
Getting traffic to slow down is not a problem, if that reduction is uniform. Creating choke points where the flow of traffic has to slow down can be a problem, because the drivers do not have perfect reaction times. A driver will not slow down at the exact moment that the driver ahead of him begins to slow down, and they may reduce their speed slightly slower than the driver ahead of them. These errors accumulate along the traffic stream, causing a "traffic shock".
Jesus, we're all going to die the first time someone comes to a T-junction...
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I can't speak for all cities, but in Boise the speed bumps are discouraged by the emergency response services-- ambulances and fire trucks forced to slow down while attempting to respond to an emergency.
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Libertarian philosophy can be boiled down to the phrase, "Work Will Make You Free."
In Libertarianism, there is no Government, so the Bosses are free to exploit the Workers.
In Communism, there is no Government, so the Workers are free to exploit the Bosses.
So in Libertarianism, man exploits man, but in Communism, its the other way around! If all you want to do is have some harmless, mindless fun, go H3RE INST3ADZ0RZ!! Grrr! Fight my Brute, you pansy!
chitoryu12 wrote:But are there vehicles that cannot cross speed bumps period?
Yes, they're called riced up shitboxes, and only complete fucking morons and dipshits drive them.
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I’ve been hit by a car, once. It was a 25mph road and I was in a crosswalk at a four way stop, and a fucking utter retarded just drove right into me. They literally had to be blind for this to happen. Nope, cant say I give one shit about speeding causing accidents. I never even had a close call on my home street, which I have lived on my whole life and which has a 35mph limit which everyone drives at least 45 on. It has no stop signs, no crosswalks, I cross when traffic just can’t hit me.
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