In particular, at least two small cities in east King County seem to have problems about cars, drivers on cellphones, and at least one pedestrian crossing in the crosswalk and with a traffic light.
It is illegal to run over pedestrians. It does not matter whether a pedestrian is blind or possibly has some mental illness going on. It is still illegal to run over pedestrians.
It is illegal to run into pedestrians crossing streets with the light and in crosswalks.
It is illegal to text or talk on a cellphone without a hands free device while driving.
The white cane law is SUPPOSED to confer additional legal protection on people who use a white cane. Carrying a white cane does nothing to change various laws of physics or the timing involved in seeing a white cane and reacting accordingly, but the white cane law is supposed to create further options for traffic law enforcement.
It sounds like several local jurisdictions need reminders of this.
RantWoman would love to hear that this post prompts some local traffic engineers to take a look at citations and accident patterns. RantWoman thinks it would be AWESOME for this to occur without anyone having to go to court, but at this point RantWoman offered a business card and the possibility of some blind people coming to court just to show up and observe.
This year's MLK day event featured the usual parade of social justice cheerleading, vibrant civic energy, signage contributed by labor unions and various socialist fractions, and the all-important opportunity to MINGLE.
While mingling RantWoman ran into another person using a white cane. Not physically ran into; RantWoman has enough vision, if she looks at something the right way to tell when someone else is carrying a white cane. This does NOT mean RantWoman can necessarily see the mak truck barreling up alongside or the driver of a given vehicle or what caused a broken windshield or any number of other circumstances. But it is more than enough vision for a lot of things including sowing confusion among other people.
RantWoman struck up a conversation. RantWoman learned that she has met blind person before and that he travels about 1.5 hours each way on a bus to come to Seattle. His wife is from another country but she is dying of cancer. RantWoman also found herself saying "we are the Council of the Blind, not the Council of all that other stuff you want to talk about." But RantWoman listened, offered a business card, and expressed willingness to see whether some blind people might be willing to come ... to COURT.
Court?
Yep. There are both personal injury and criminal lawyers involved. The blind person RantWoman met has been hit at least twice. His injuries require surgery. RantWoman's inclination to let the lawyers figure out what needs to be said is competing with personal inclination to bristle about a culture of lawlessness and people who disregard traffic laws possibly injuring other people in these communities.
It sounds like the cops are not enforcing basic traffic
laws. RantWoman quaintly thinks that even in teeny tiny jurisdictions it is reasonable for a blind person to be able to cross a street safely in the middle of a town business district.
It is not any less illegal to hit people in the crosswalk just
because someone is mentally ill. It is not any less illegal to talk on
the cellphone while driving just because the person you hit is
mentally ill. It is not any less illegal to ignore the white cane law
because...
Please bear with RantWoman's severe humor impairment.
RantWoman's Blind roommate from college was run over by a bus a few years after graduation while commuting home. Blind Roommate died for being 5 feet tall and crossing a street in front of a bus at dusk. Blind roommate's father, a civil engineer said there had been other accidents at that intersection too. RantWoman is not in a position to comment about the locations and other accidents, but RantWoman would love to to know others have also taken into account that possibility!
And while RantWoman was looking for some images to speak to the more visually oriented of her audience, her search engine served up:
List of 10 Don'ts for drivers around white canes
http://www.disabilityinfo.org/blog/?p=1746
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