Killed by a Traffic Engineer: Shattering the Delusion that Science Underlies Our Transportation System

by Wes Marshall

have a case. A lawyer who used to prosecute organized crime wrote a 1968 Traffic Quarterly paper complaining that there is less justice in transportation than organized crime. He says that “speed and right-of-way violations lead the list of those offenses which have a causal relationship to accidents resulting in personal injury. Yet most of the persons cited for such offenses never see the inside of a courtroom.”8 The author is flummoxed as to how “someone can run a red light, hit a pedestrian in the crosswalk, totally disable the victim, and never even have to make an appearance in court. The offender simply writes out his check for $10 which he posts as bail and then forfeits.” He goes on to say that “of course if the unfortunate pedestrian dies, the motorist will be charged with vehicular manslaughter, but it takes a homicide to get you into court unless the underlying moving violation is an extremely serious one.”9