When I trained for my driver's license in Germany, the scenario "people may run onto the street" was one of the most frequently recurring scenarios in the theory part.
Anything from "children run onto the street to chase after a ball they were playing with" to "pedestrian jumping out between cars because they didn't see you" or "tram stops in the middle of the road and people exit onto the street".
Legally pedestrians must use marked crossings when available and are told to check both ways, but if a driver hits a pedestrian, it's always the driver's fault (though the pedestrian might share some blame in some circumstances but never the full liability).
I find extremely hard to believe it wasn't top of mind for the Uber engineers. I think it's more likely they just fucked it up or deliberately ignored it and are letting the NTSB think it was negligence because it's a less harmful outcome for them.
I've seen that happen (on a 4-lane hwy): a drunk who apparently tried to jump under a bus, but reacted so late he nearly missed it; as it were, he stumbled into the side (and rebounded to the wayside). Quite improbable, yet there we were.
> Legally pedestrians must use marked crossings when available and are told to check both ways, but if a driver hits a pedestrian, it's always the driver's fault (though the pedestrian might share some blame in some circumstances but never the full liability).
It's theoretically the same in most US jurisdictions. However, it's not what the law says that matters; it's what the police will actually do, and in practice, there is a very strong tendency to blame the pedestrian for any accident.
> Anything from "children run onto the street to chase after a ball they were playing with" to "pedestrian jumping out between cars because they didn't see you" or "tram stops in the middle of the road and people exit onto the street".
What about "drug impaired people going onto the autobahn at night wearing dark clothes in a section unilluminated by street lights" which is what I believe happened here?
It's near impossible to enter autobahn without a car or other motorized vehicle. I am not sure what kind of road the victim was following but it surely wouldn't compare to autobahn. Was it a highway with free entrance for bicycles and scooters?
Anything from "children run onto the street to chase after a ball they were playing with" to "pedestrian jumping out between cars because they didn't see you" or "tram stops in the middle of the road and people exit onto the street".
Legally pedestrians must use marked crossings when available and are told to check both ways, but if a driver hits a pedestrian, it's always the driver's fault (though the pedestrian might share some blame in some circumstances but never the full liability).