8-year old boy hit by Prius he didn’t hear

omarrana submitted on 05/08/2008 Official Bell & Ross Timestamp: 12:10 PM
from: www.egmcartech.com

[54] user comments | category: Misc News

Tags: Toyota

Toyota

So if you remember back in October there was a huge controversy over hybrids being too quiet for blind people to hear. The U.S. National Federation of the Blind Committee even ran tests to see if it would be an issue for blind people crossing the street that couldn’t hear a hybrid passing by. Well after reading this, blind people wouldn’t be the only ones worried about getting run over by a hybrid.

Eight-year-old, Owen Erickson, was hit by a Toyota Prius while biking with a friend that he supposedly didn’t hear passing by. Although little Owen wasn’t injured, he did end up on the hood of the car.

Owen’s mom, Jane Flannigan, says that she... Read Article

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Batman219 - 5/8/2008 12:42:39 PM

+8 Boost

Unintended consequences will get you everytime.

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Hantra - 5/8/2008 12:44:27 PM

+12 Boost

So the Feds will now mandate beeping noises to emit from hybrid cars. Then there will be a complaint of noise pollution and how it's destroying quality of life.

This is what happens when you have tyranny of the minority. Stupid people get to make the rules. If you're in the STREET, you should be watching where you're going. That goes for drivers AND bikers.

If you're deaf, and you MUST play in the street, and you get hit, then it's the DRIVER'S fault. It's not America's fault that we didn't make a stupid law to protect you. Shirking resposibility sucks.

/rant

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Hantra - 5/8/2008 12:45:49 PM

+4 Boost

and since I KNOW someone's going to post this, I'll go ahead and do it:

"Maybe your English teacher should accept responsibility for your poor spelling LOLZ"

There. Now you don't have to post that.

Need4Speed - 5/8/2008 1:24:00 PM

0 Boost

As always were critical of the powers that be until it's our 8 year old lying in the middle of the street...until then I guess it's okay that it was someone else's loved one.

Bmw8ter - 5/8/2008 3:22:44 PM

+8 Boost

Need4Speed......Yea, when my 8 year old gets hit by a Pruis, while playing in the street, the first thing out of my mouth to the driver is going to be,"why were you so f'ing quiet".

No, it'll be more like, "why weren't you f'ing paying attention".

Kinger - 5/9/2008 10:33:55 AM

+1 Boost

Well to be honest why should an 8 year old be allowed by his parents to go out and play in the street anyway :/

VISO - 5/11/2008 2:57:49 PM

+1 Boost

This is a small boy idiot! It is YOUR responsibility as a driver to watch for children and others. And if someone is blind, and if they do not hear a vehicle, how should they be responsible and you not? Remember, the law, no matter what, will always favor the pedestrian. It's your responsiblity as driver to be careful at all times and act like you think you own the place.

steve27t - 5/8/2008 1:02:10 PM

0 Boost

Another reason the super efficient small DIESELS will take the market by storm, at least you can hear them coming!

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answer - 5/8/2008 1:08:51 PM

+8 Boost

As the parent of a hearing impaired child, I think it's amazingly stupid to fault the car's lack of noise as being a cause of concern.

If the car needs to make noise, it already has a horn to do so.

If a pedestrian gets hit by a car's outside mirror, should we do away with all of those?

Just be careful and expect a street to be a dangerous place to be.

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VISO - 5/11/2008 2:59:33 PM

+1 Boost

I understand what you are saying, but your comments are scary. You are trying to not fault the driver. Dangerous precedent. Drivers should always be held accoutable if a pedestrian is hit.

bigmotov - 5/8/2008 1:16:35 PM

+5 Boost

This is like saying we need all cars to have flashing lights so the deaf (who can see) can notice cars better because they can't hear them. Not quite the same, but bicycles are silient, will they need to emit noise?

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bigmotov - 5/8/2008 1:20:43 PM

+4 Boost

answer - i saw your comment after i posted mine.

EL34 - 5/8/2008 1:19:53 PM

-8 Boost

I say the kid should take Toyota to court for building the ugly thing :-\

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_43LE - 5/8/2008 3:02:32 PM

+11 Boost

If we could take people to court for acting like an idiot imagine how many subpoenas you would have?

cl0wn - 5/9/2008 5:18:17 AM

+2 Boost

someone should take good ole EL34 to court for being such a broke douchebag

Willis - 5/8/2008 1:26:00 PM

+6 Boost

The same thing once almost happened to me, except it was an RX400h. Things like this can be avoided if you're simply aware of what's going on around you.

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SS21CA - 5/9/2008 4:12:15 PM

+2 Boost

LOL. So if a cop pulls me over for my exhaust being loud. I'll hand him a copy of this article and tell him I had it installed for pedestrian safety?

They had the same stupid problem with the electric motorcycles being so queit that other drivers couldnt hear them. Point being, if people were more aware and alert of their surroundings, this shouldn't be a problem.

opfreak - 5/8/2008 1:36:43 PM

-2 Boost

poor car

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hao420 - 5/9/2008 7:15:07 PM

0 Boost

poor people....U....

gsh23 - 5/8/2008 1:56:59 PM

-4 Boost

who cares. stupid kills are doing us a favor by filtering out their genes from society.

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dimitri_010 - 5/8/2008 10:34:18 PM

+2 Boost

rest in peace gsh23, ur stupid genes will be filtered from society and no longer will you be able to pass on ur dumbass views.

gsh23 - 5/9/2008 5:19:27 PM

+1 Boost

haha please, if i didnt age i would be the last person on earth.

dimitri_010 - 5/10/2008 2:45:37 AM

+2 Boost

and ull be as alone as u are now. because of ur dickhead comments. I can probably name a few people with disabilities that are far more succesful than you, in any category you choose. its people like u that piss me off

fuzion - 5/8/2008 2:07:23 PM

+6 Boost

This is so ****ing retarded; the prius is not a fricking 0db vehicle, you can HEAR the electric motors, and it's more than likely the driver had music and the air on which also generates noise.

Bunch of idiots, how's about you quit riding a fricking bike in the STREET.

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JRobUSC - 5/8/2008 4:12:57 PM

+6 Boost

don't use your bike in the street? How are kids supposed to get their bikes from House A to House B? Fly them there? Ride them through the neighbor's lawns? Have mom and dad load bikes into the back of their cars and drop them off (BTW, most cars won't fit an assembled bike in them)? And if they can't use the street where do they ride them once they get there anyway? Not everyone has mountainbike dirt tracks in their neighboorhoods.

Last I checked bikes have as much legal right to use public roads as cars, the only exceptions being high speed roads (aka highways). People on bikes need to pay attention, people in cars need to pay attention. That's how it has always been.

SHOWTIME - 5/8/2008 2:52:27 PM

+7 Boost

Aside from blind people, last time I checked you're suppossed to look out for a car not try to hear if it's coming.

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bulldogz - 5/8/2008 3:17:41 PM

+4 Boost

is this akin to the whole "if a tree falls in the woods..."?

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Doukas - 5/8/2008 3:20:40 PM

+7 Boost

People get hit all the time with cars, trucks, even trains.... no one says anything about the loudness of those vehicles...but..now you have a quiet car...people are blaiming the car....seems to me the common issue is people not paying attention to their surroundings and getting hit...

but noooooo....you have stupid yenta's organizing groups to come up with excuses.

thats my 2 cents.

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Rupert - 5/8/2008 3:47:35 PMView My AgentSpace

+6 Boost

Bicycles are quiet too - shall we ban them???

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Steve - 5/8/2008 4:27:27 PM

+4 Boost

This sounds like another one of the idiot "loud pipes save lives" cries. How about looking both ways before crossing a street, or taking MSF and becoming a skilled motorcyclist? It's always "someone else's" fault. Snort!

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stash84 - 5/8/2008 4:28:31 PM

+4 Boost

"So if you remember back in October there was a huge controversy over hybrids being too quiet for blind people to hear."

dont blind people have seeing eye dogs, or people helping them etc..? i dont think blind people should be walking or riding bike without supervision..that just seems absurd

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lexusrox123 - 5/8/2008 6:49:44 PM

+5 Boost

if i were blind i would NEVER ride a bike!

hatepusss - 5/8/2008 4:41:24 PM

+2 Boost

There should be a bicycling school for kids, so the dumb kids can learn to watch where they are going. People are hit by car, motorcycle, truck, even the TRAIN all the time. People need to watch where they are going (pedestrian and driver)...period.

Also, People need to stop (esp. kids) texting, listening to loud IPOD music, playing Gameboy, talking on the cell phone and stop watching a movie when walking in or near traffic!

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Rupert - 5/8/2008 5:25:03 PMView My AgentSpace

+4 Boost

Exactly! Today some guy just walked out right in front of me, he was on his phone and didn't even look in my direction - and it was a one way street!

JUGNU - 5/8/2008 4:43:15 PMView My AgentSpace

+3 Boost

maybe they boy is deaf...etc.

JUGNU

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Bmw8ter - 5/8/2008 5:47:52 PM

+4 Boost

If the boy is deaf, he wouldn't be able to sense even a nonhybrid car, unless it had a custom exhaust.

bmwfan1513 - 5/8/2008 4:44:21 PM

+4 Boost

Thank God he wasn't hurt.

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adamsaf723 - 5/8/2008 6:00:43 PM

+4 Boost

Is the kid blind too?

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huu76 - 5/8/2008 6:43:49 PM

+1 Boost

Atleast the kid wasn't hurt, it's one lesson he won't forget.

I'd say kids don't become stupid until they hit highschool and it continues on through college (look at how many of them are voting for the non-white candidate of hype).

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lexusrox123 - 5/8/2008 6:54:20 PM

+2 Boost

or in the 60's when they were so adamantly anti-Vietnam War, even though they didnt know what was going on, and they listened to the negative media, like the tv news "reports"...dont thiink they knew that we won every single battle there.
btw, ppl really have to look both ways, else they pays.

Rupert - 5/9/2008 11:16:41 AMView My AgentSpace

+1 Boost

Since when did America win in Vietnam?

M53R - 5/9/2008 6:19:32 PMView My AgentSpace

+1 Boost

Haha are you for real? Someone needs to check his historical facts... lexusrox

lexusrox123 - 5/10/2008 7:17:27 PM

0 Boost

i think you do. the u.s. DID win every battle, but since there were so many more commies than americans, they(commies) "won". in other words, we kept losing so many men per battle that we ran out of soldiers, in a way. i wouldnt be writing this if it was false.

Rupert - 5/10/2008 7:36:49 PMView My AgentSpace

+1 Boost

Surely if you lose the most men and don't gain ground then you have lost the battle?? How else would you win apart from having the most living troops and gaining territory?

lexusrox123 - 5/11/2008 2:14:16 PM

+1 Boost

sigh...OK i guess i really do have to spell everything out for you.
we "lost" partly because hippies and other antiwar peacenicks wanted the president to pull out the troops b/c they thought we were losing all battles etc. The commies exhausted our supplies with every battle, that we couldnt go keep winning much longer. there were too many communists in vietnam and not enough of us. end of story.
anyways, back to the topic please?

AMGC55 - 5/8/2008 8:57:29 PM

+3 Boost

maybe the prius driver didnt hear his bike :)

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W208 - 5/8/2008 9:31:09 PM

+2 Boost

I'm sure this could be argued in a U.S. Court of Law.

tattedtwice - 5/8/2008 9:56:58 PM

0 Boost

Sue toyota; shut 'em down, so we wont be burdened with looking at them or having to get around them as they clog the highways, going 10 miles UNDER the limit.

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StickShiftCamry - 5/9/2008 12:07:33 AM

+2 Boost

Any luxury car coasting down a road will be silent. Stupid article. The problem these days is w/ anti-lock brakes, ppl can't hear u coming to a "screeching" halt when they cross. I've had close calls, w/ the brake pedal to the floor but no screeching while some idiot decided to cross the street w/o looking.

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evilm - 5/9/2008 10:12:34 AM

-1 Boost

Another Japanese sneak attack!!!

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evilm - 5/9/2008 10:13:40 AM

-1 Boost

I agree el34.

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TheBoss - 5/9/2008 12:48:54 PM

+2 Boost

That little kid was EL34. Since Prius is a Toyota product, now they threatening to sue. But if Prius was built by BMW, EL's mom would've slapped his azz on the head and said "why couldn't you've died boy? Your crack daddy and I would've been so proud of you."

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carchick - 5/9/2008 6:44:43 PM

+3 Boost

All I am going to say is that this country needs to stop blaming other for one's own negligence. What happened to common sense when crossing the road? Granted the driver could have been at fault for driving recklessly but to say you didn't hear a car coming from the left or right? That just puts the person being hit at fault for not being able to hear something he/she already sees.

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t_bone - 5/10/2008 10:59:38 AM

+2 Boost

Stop, look, and listen. Listen is the last one, and really just a backup for "look."

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