Does society have a responsibilty to help prevent stupid people from getting killed ?

[Platapus]

Germany may think so

German city puts traffic lights on the ground -- for you phone gazers



http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/27/europe...ebar_expansion

Worried about people glued to their phones while they walk down the street?


Two German cities were concerned enough to install traffic lights that face up at pedestrians ... on the sidewalk.


The southern city of Augsburg recently installed the system at two crowded train stations after a manager saw something similar in Cologne.
Cologne installed similar devices in 2011, according to the German transportation research institute STUVA.

Lights on the ground alert pedestrians looking down at their phones.




The lights cost about 10,000 euros ($11,313) each. Some have complained about the price, said Jurgen Fergg, a spokesman for the Augsburg municipal service, but the cost is "justified compared to the damage that can be prevented."


"We will keep an eye on the results and see if less people will walk over the red light," Fergg said.


A 19-year-old man was seriously injured March 8 in Augsburg when he walked into the path of an oncoming train while wearing headphones, according to police. Other cities in Germany have had fatal accidents involving distracted pedestrians, according to Fergg.


Though the solution seems simple -- just look up, people --

distracted walking has become a dangerous problem in recent years.
A 2013 study from Ohio State University found that the number of people injured while walking and using their phones more than doubled from 2005 to 2010, when more than 1,500 went to the emergency room.
A professor involved in the study, Jack Nasar, said he "wouldn't be surprised if the number of injuries to pedestrians caused by cell phones doubles again between 2010 and 2015."

Sometimes you just gotta shake your head ruefully.

[Oberon]

I guess you've got to try and keep the younger generation alive somehow, if you're going to not rely on immigration to counteract the aging population problem.

[Platapus]

Natural selection. Nature tries so hard to do her part. But we keep on interfering.

[Buddahaid]

In this case I would say no. It would enable victims to sue if they were injured at another location without the system.

Out here we have some cross walks, which are not at traffic light controlled intersections, with a signal system that the pedestrian can activate to alert and stop traffic so they can cross safely. Good idea until a pedestrian decides not to use the signal after traffic has gotten trained to expect it.

[Skybird]

Let natural selection have its ways. Thats what genes are there for.

[August]

Originally Posted by Platapus

Natural selection. Nature tries so hard to do her part. But we keep on interfering.

To the detriment of our entire species...

Originally Posted by Platapus

German city puts traffic lights on the ground -- for you phone gazers

Ugh.
We used to invest so cool stuff...

[em2nought]

Natural selection doesn't work so well for a warrior culture. We need some deadly activities for politicians and lawyers to participate in so as to keep their future numbers down. I think that's our problem right now, too many valiant guys have died without heirs, and too many scum buckets breeding in their place. It's why there are so many ready to vote for practically a communist in the USA.

[HunterICX]

Like those ground traffic lights would help, people are so focused on their 5'' screen that they won't even notice even if the light flashed constantly. They still walk on and get run over a by a car or train as they're that blind and deaf to their surrounding that nothing will help.

I rather see that money spend on cameras placed on those cross overs so whenever one of those stupid idiots walk through red because he's too busy worrying about the latest twitter feed and gets hit by a car the stupid idiot if he's lucky to even have survived gets charged with the damages inflicted onto the car or in case of a train the therapy costs for the driver who went through such horrible experience!

[Catfish]

I see so much young girls on their bicycles, one hand at the handlebar and one holding a smartphone, looking at that instead on the road.. sometimes freehand and both hands on the phone.. i am really astonished there are not more accidents.
You also see it on the motorways, people driving at a hundred miles while texting.. It is forbidden, but no one cares.

[Jimbuna]

I'd have thought this was a good idea....visual and audible warnings should help keep injury/fatality rates down and at the very least lay the burdon of any incident on the individual concerned.