Comment by eru
3 days ago
Eh, in the US you don't even need a company nor a lawyer, a car is enough.
See https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueReddit/comments/1q9xx1/is_it_ok... or similar discussions: basically, when you run over someone in a car, statistically they will call it an accident and you get away scot-free.
In any case, you are right that often people in cars or companies get away with things that seem morally wrong. But not always.
A bit over five years ago, someone struck and killed my friend in a crosswalk. He was a fellow PhD student. It was on a road with a 30mph limit but where people regularly speed to 50+mph.
He was an international student from Vietnam. His family woke up one day, got a phone call, and learned he was killed. I guess there was nobody to press charges.
She never faced any accountability for the 'accident'. She gets to live her life, and she now runs a puppetry education for children. Her name even seems to have been scrubbed from most of the articles about her killing my friend.
So, I think about this regularly.
I was a cyclist at the time so I was aware of how common this injustice was, but that was the first time it hit so close to home. I moved into a large city and every cyclist I've met here (every!) has been hit by a car, and the car driver effectively got only a slap on the wrist. It's just so common.
I'm sorry for your loss.
> Her name even seems to have been scrubbed from most of the articles about her killing my friend.
I'm somewhat surprised there were even articles? Are road fatalities uncommon enough in the US that everyone gets written up? Or was this a special enough one?
Not sure if this is true for every university, but when someone in the community dies, especially a student, there's usually at least an article about it.