And is it inconceivable that the elephant was startled by something else and ran into the road?
I’m just saying that things like this can be nobodies fault at all. There are 8 Billion humans have interactions with other humans and being every moment of everyday, so you can tell me that an elephant couldn’t get killed by a complete faultless accident.
It is conceivable, but that doesn’t make it not negligence. If you can’t see the sides of the road well enough to stop for something (or someone) running in the way, then you need to slow down.
FWIW I’ve lived places with large animals like this, and the main reason careful people drive slow in those areas is so the driver won’t die hitting an adult animal. Everyone is aware of this and most drivers knowingly choose risk everyone’s lives anyways.
This was neither faultless nor accidental because the elephant had a reasonable expectation of being allowed to cross, and a driver is always expected to drive a speed at which their stopping distance is less than their reaction distance. Sometimes that means you have to drive frustratingly slow.
I don’t believe it is, no. Going faster than your reaction time (given road conditions) is negligence that caused a collision, not an “accident”.
Elephants have not been conditioned to accept these choices as unavoidable. We had been traveling next to them harmlessly for thousands of years.
And is it inconceivable that the elephant was startled by something else and ran into the road?
I’m just saying that things like this can be nobodies fault at all. There are 8 Billion humans have interactions with other humans and being every moment of everyday, so you can tell me that an elephant couldn’t get killed by a complete faultless accident.
It is conceivable, but that doesn’t make it not negligence. If you can’t see the sides of the road well enough to stop for something (or someone) running in the way, then you need to slow down.
FWIW I’ve lived places with large animals like this, and the main reason careful people drive slow in those areas is so the driver won’t die hitting an adult animal. Everyone is aware of this and most drivers knowingly choose risk everyone’s lives anyways.
This was neither faultless nor accidental because the elephant had a reasonable expectation of being allowed to cross, and a driver is always expected to drive a speed at which their stopping distance is less than their reaction distance. Sometimes that means you have to drive frustratingly slow.