Belgium

[mids]

Sounds grim.

"A car was driven into a crowd of people preparing for a carnival in southern Belgium on Sunday morning killing six and seriously injuring 10 others, but authorities said the incident did not appear to be a militant attack.



The incident occurred at around 4am in the southern Belgium village of Strepy-Bracquegnies, a district in the former coal-mining town of La Louviere which is 30 miles south of Brussels.



'At this stage of the investigation, we know that a vehicle slammed into a group [of carnival goers] and that there are six dead and 26 injured, including 10 people whose life is in danger,' prosecutor Damien Verheyen told reporters at the town's city hall.





The main suspects, who were arrested, were born in 1988 and 1990, he said, adding that terrorism was not at this stage considered a motive.



Mr Verheyen said the two came from La Louviere, a town near the French border in Belgium's rust belt, and are not known to authorities for similar acts."


www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10632529/Four-killed-12-seriously-injured-car-ploughs-crowd-Belgium-carnival.html

[flatandy]

There was a car crash in Texas last weekend where 7 people died. A massive pick-up truck driven by a 13 year old ploughed into a minibus full of college golfers.

There was a sign over the highway here saying 1100 people died in car crashes in South Carolina last year.

There are just so many road deaths.

[mids]

Is pick-up driving compulsory for children in Texas?

[flatandy]

I think so. It’s also technically illegal at that age, but that doesn’t seem to stop them (until they hit transit vans while going at 80mph)

[mids]

I'm never sure what the best way to standardise road deaths is for international comparisons. Per head of population must be too crude. Per head of drivers and/or per miles driven annually seems like it would be better. There must be more drivers/population who drive more miles/year in the US compared with the UK.

[flatandy]

I think there are more miles per capita in the US, but many of those miles are technically easy. Or would be if American drivers were half as courteous as British ones. So many thousands of miles are driven on big wide interstate highways. Very little on country lane type roads.

[perrykneeham]

USA is shitter than Belgium. Is that the message?

[Repat Van]

Two lorries crashed in Sydney this morning. The pictures looked pretty extreme but I did not see if there were any serious injuries / deaths.

[Repat Van]

Mar 20, 2022 19:49:26 GMT flatandy said:

There was a car crash in Texas last weekend where 7 people died. A massive pick-up truck driven by a 13 year old ploughed into a minibus full of college golfers.

There was a sign over the highway here saying 1100 people died in car crashes in South Carolina last year.

There are just so many road deaths.

THIRTEEN?!

[bertruss2]

The accident in Belgium was due to boy racers going flat out along the village street and hitting a group of carnival clowns in the dark. That's how it looks, according to the preliminary investigation.

[perrykneeham]

Boy racers? They were in their thirties.

[mids]

Belgium though...

[ootlg]

All stoned apparently.

[moggyonspeed]

If the accident had been in Teheran, then they probably would be.

Small mercies ‘n’ that.

[bertruss2]

The driver has been charged with manslaughter. His lawyer says his client had no way of knowing there was going to be a crowd of people hanging around in the street at night.

[perrykneeham]

Apart from the speed limit signs and the typical village markers, naturally.

[perrykneeham]

Street view shows the speed limit in Strepy-Bracquegnies to be 20kmh.

[bertruss2]

Video of the scene just before the crash shows a large crowd walking down the middle of the road. The defence lawyer accuses them of not following the rules and keeping to the side of the road with an escort of stewards in high-viz jackets. Obviously, he's not expecting to get his client off. Just a reduced sentence.

[Repat Van]

Bump