In Atlanta last April, a woman named Raquel Nelson, with her three children in tow, jaywalked. They were hit by a car and her four-year-old son was killed. Astonishingly, she was convicted of vehicular homicide, although public outrage has helped her secure a new trial.
This is an extreme example of something we see in Chapel Hill, Carrboro and around the country: blaming the victim when our automobile-dominated transportation system, which is inherently lethal, kills or injures someone just trying to walk from one place to another in the urban environment.
Raquel Nelson did nothing wrong when she jaywalked. In all likelihood, the motorist driving the car that killed her son was breaking the speed limit. But even if, although I find this hard to imagine, the driver was doing everything they could reasonably be expected to do, the proper conclusion in that case is that no one is to blame. It is just another tragic instance in which our insane transportation system proved to be far too dangerous.
