Aaron Naparstek

» Thursday, May 18, 2006

Or You Might Call it Attempted Homicide

Apparently, we have come to accept the destructiveness and sociopathy of American car culture as so thoroughly normal and mundane that even when a guy intentionally uses his SUV to try to kill five people after a fight, we still call it an "accident." This little gem was found by Starts & Fits in today's New York Times:

May 18, 2006
Man Strikes 5 With S.U.V. in North Bellmore, N.Y.
By JENNIFER 8. LEE
A man intentionally ran over five people in North Bellmore, with an S.U.V. after a fight last night, the Nassau County police said. The driver fled the scene of the accident, at 2800 Pacific Ave. But the police later located the vehicle they believed was involved in the accident in Garden City and took the driver in for questioning. The victims were taken to Nassau University Medical Center, the police said. One was in critical condition, a hospital spokeswoman said.

5:45 PM | Link |

Comments

It should be noted that traffic engineers seem to be dropping "accident" from their vocabulary, on the theory that most such mishaps are somebody's fault, even if no harm was intended. In Wisconsin, the preferred term is "crash;" the State DOT even went to the trouble a few years ago of changing the wording on existing signs.

Maybe the New York Times style manual needs to be updated.

Posted by

Anonymous @ 5/19/2006 3:58 PM | Link

Thanks for putting that up. It has inspired me to coin a new term: Iraqcident™.

Posted by

Anonymous @ 5/19/2006 5:06 PM | Link

"Iraqcident" implies that the mess over there is nobody's fault. I prefer "Qrash."

Posted by

Anonymous @ 5/19/2006 5:20 PM | Link

Shall we sic Norman Oder on the Grey Lady to extract a correction?

Posted by

Anonymous @ 5/22/2006 7:16 PM | Link

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