Uber Accident Would Have Been Difficult To Avoid, Victim Stepped In Front Of Car

Pedestrians and vehicles have had an arrangement that was intended to keep everyone safe over the last several decades. The former would keep to the sidewalk while the latter would drive on the roads. A breach of this arrangement appears to have led to the recent death of a woman in Arizona, who reportedly stepped in front of a driverless Uber car.

According to the preliminary reports from police investigations, the forward-facing camera onboard the Uber vehicle recorded the victim, Elaine Herzberg, 49 suddenly stepping in front of the car while walking alongside her bike. The event occurred so fast, in fact, that Tempe Police Chief Sylvia Moir said it would have been difficult to avoid the collision regardless of in what mode the car was in, The Los Angeles Times reports.

"The driver [car operator] said it was like a flash, the person walked out in front of them," Moir said. "His first alert to the collision was the sound of the collision."

The accident occurred around 10 p.m. in Tempe, Arizona yesterday, with footage indicating how the victim moved from the dark, center median to the road seemingly out of nowhere. This incident has resulted in the widespread shutdown of all driverless Uber tests.

After providing her initial assessment of the situation, however, Moir was subsequently criticized on social media for her so-called “inappropriate,” with many calling it tone-deaf, The Verge reports. The Tempe Police Department has since had to issue another statement addressing the matter, which reads, “Tempe Police Department does not determine fault in vehicular collisions.”

It’s also worth noting that Arizona recently enacted new changes to its official policies with regards to autonomous vehicles. Basically, any incident that occurs involving the driverless vehicle that leads to the death of the victim will be the company’s liability. The company would need to take responsibility, as a result.