Traffic Deaths

Last week a car driven by an elderly women crashed into the façade of a medical building, killing two people. One of these victims, Dr. Mark Vasa, was a alumnus of the Zamir Chorale of Boston, of which I am a current member. Although I did not know him personally, many of my fellow Zamirniks did.

This is the third time that such an event has occurred at the periphery of my  life.  When I was in high school, a driver crashed his car into the façade of a bank, killing people waiting for a bus to New York City right outside the doors. The mother of a friend worked at that bank, and the reports of the death were terribly gruesome.  In graduate school, a maintenance worker was killed in the parking lot behind my building when an older driver confused the gas and brake pedals. The victim was sitting outside having his breakfast, 10 feet from the edge of the parking lot. 

 

As a human factors professional, I know about the factors that lead to confusing the pedals. Spatial awareness, propriosensory confusion, post-event trauma, etc. As a human being, I wonder if this type of accident is common enough to have happened within my local networks three times in 20 years. Statistically uninteresting but unnerving nevertheless.