DC made the news all over the world last Saturday, but this time for a local tragedy. A woman drove 70mph into a crowd of people, injuring 35, including young children. I have been addressing pedestrian safety issues on this blog for a while now, discussing dangerous intersections, enforcement, and ways to protect our residents. Unfortunately, the tragedy at Unifest has highlighted this problem once again. But this time, it has nothing to do with traffic lights, speed bumps or stop signs.
It seems that we are never entirely safe. No matter how much we work at it, tragedies can never be prevented entirely. What happened yesterday reminded me of the elderly man that killed 7 people with his car at a farmers market in Santa Monica, California. Bad things just happen every now and then, and we need to use these events to appreciate the value of human life and to cherish those closest to us.
How can we prevent future tragedies such as what happened at Unifest? Is it better safety barriers? Is it pedestrian vigilance? Is it better mental health care for those that may commit such acts? I would really like to hear ideas from readers today, because I think it's important for us to share our thoughts on this issue. We all go to street festivals in this city, and as summer begins, let's think about how we can make them safer.
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I also immediately though back to the tragedy of Santa Monica when I heard the news of what happened. After a bit more thinking I decided that any comparison of these events, however similar in appearance and outcome, is completely wrong.
Senility and crack (ab)use are very different "motivators" for plowing a car through a crowd of innocent people. One speaks to the real issue we all will eventually face as loved ones continue to drive past the point of safety. This issue is something that can be dealt with through family interventions and through proper testing and licensing of the elderly. Whereas the other reflects a more systemic societal woe that the District's communities and residents cannot seem to shake.
Prevention is the key word here. We can never prevent random tragedies from occurring. That is precisely what makes them random. This act however, was far from random and therefore was, in hindsight, completely preventable.
A solution is not simple enough to describe in this blog comment. However, I'm sure that the combination of factors that continue to stifle a subset of District residents, leading to a path of abuse and violence, are after all this time well established. Prevention must begin somewhere. I say that a good start might be as close as the shadows cast by the individuals chosen to lead some of the more troubled communities.
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