Jim Thompson said:
My question: What does it cost (purchase and install) for a traffic
light?
I'm going to suggest that the family sue the city for 100X the cost of
a traffic light.
My condolences to the family.
Go to the Thomas register, find some mfrs (Eagle Signal Control in
Baraboo Wisconsin, offices in Austin Tx?) and get a formal quote. If
they need a city official, send private email and I'll approach one.
In 1994, I sued the city and county of Denver in federal court for
wrongful death regarding my daughter.
There are difficulties in sueing a government agency. There may be a
difficulty in getting them to accept liability. However, I did find a
case in the record when we wrote up the appeal (pro se, and which we
won) that has some elements of similarity.
In that case, a governmental entity (perhaps the state of Wisconson or
Illinois) was sued for negligence (as in this case, a more difficult
thing than *action* that is wrong) for failing to put up a sign in a
park (I forget if it was state or county park) on a trail that lead
along a cliff (similar to failing to put up a traffic signal at an
increasingly dangerous intersection). A woman out (perhaps at night)
fell and died.
I don't have the file handy, and for various personal reasons I'm
either not going to read it, or else will read it, get maudlin, make
genome look cheerful, and have no judgement for a few days ... either
way not leading to a useful post. If it matters still in a week ask
privately. It is on my to do list to produce a CD of all the court
cases and such that we have in the file, and have our little non
profit sell them to help in just this type of circumstance.
In any event I know that the referenced case was lost in the court and
went to appeal, since I was only reading appeal cases. Probably the
appeal was successful because I wanted citations that supported our
view.
If the family sues, they simply must have a tremendous amount of
financial depth to stay with the matter through appeal. They must
have a great deal of emotional strength to go the distance. And they
should have reasonable answers to two important questions: 1) What if
you lose, 2) What if you win.
There will be some effort, the ripples of which are beginning to
surface in the postings already, to "blame the victim." Assholes.
What if it were your daughter?
(I just have to jab. As a Republican and proud conservative, you of
course know how evil it is for those lazy whiney commies to sue. At
least here in Texas Geo. W. has advocated tort reform, so our stocks
and institutions are safe. Go Enron! $ $ )
All of this suti advice is, however, irrelevant and misguided. I'm
now 11 years post mortem. I have perspective and experience that I
did not have then. I finished a Ph.D. following the shooting, some
measure of grit. I have talked to many survivors, such as Polly
Klass's father. I have talked to many lesser known individuals who
are survivors. I have appeared 3 times on Jenny Jones and talked in
the green room with others on the show.
Generally, they (we) fall into classes along each of several
dimensions: 1) go forward or live forever in the death day, 2) go for
personal vengence or societal safety, 3) become excessively fearful or
excessively bold, 4) talk only about the decedent, or never talk about
the decedent.
I am a forward, safety, bold, talkative, but you have all already
surmised that whenever you Googled to see just who I am.
I don't care about helping people be not decent, and I presume that
people with my profile are decent. So ... I would let the family
grieve. Talk to them like they are still real people -- that is
important to them. Don't flinch if you see the conversation heading
'there' again, but don't steer it any more than you would on any other
topic. In time, they will ask the "why" question that is difficult
and not answerable. In time, they will ask "what now" and you might
suggest making things so that no one else's mother/daughter/wife will
die. They may embrace that, but it conflicts strongly with the
lawsuit (my personal but experienced based opinion.) If they accept
that mission then they will be in a small but loyal club, that none of
the members wanted to join.
Then the future unfolds.
Make it an election issue. If the city council has people who won't
back safety, replace them. Run yourself. That message spreads pretty
quickly.
Are people speeding? Well? This is an electronics design group. In
my own response, I am working, perhaps aimlessly, on a "wireless,
internet connected gunshot logger and locator" which ultimately is a
unit that sits on a light pole, or by the road, and listens to sound.
Has ntp time synchronization.
Such a unit could presumably be caused to evaluate doppler shift,
determine speed, trigger a web-cam. Just put the pictures up at all
the grocery stores.
Don't just sue, it is empty and hollow. Cause change. The woman is
dead. Cash isn't enough. Extract a worthy value for that death.
And my power supply question on nmos singing is related to this
project. I have worked hours with AoE, read all the past year's posts
about resitors on the gate, and am stuck. Give me a real answer.
