Quote:
Originally Posted by Cimarron29414
I respectfully disagree. If you do a wheelie on your crotch rocket at 100 MPH on a wet road in the middle of the night with no headlights on and no helmet and you wreck - that's not an accident. That's pretty much what we have here.
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Isn't it relative? For some the above risk as you describe it is very high based on a factor such as experience, for others the risk relative to that factor may be significantly less. Therefore, based on that one factor (experience) a crash may very well be an accident. There are some people who can do wheelies as well as they can walk across the street and their risk of injury may be the same. But if you take a young person unfamiliar with their bike, unfamiliar with the road, unfamiliar with the dynamics of wet traction, unfamiliar with traffic patterns on the road in question and inexperienced in doing wheelies, I would agree with you.
You may not understand the point and my use of hyperbole - but I have not seen anything that points to anyone purposefully taking on unnecessary risk related to the oil spill. The people in question drill for oil, that is what they do.
---------- Post added at 10:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:47 PM ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by roachboy
but because problems with the "fail-safe" systems that were supposed to prevent such massive problems were known and nothing done about them. that means it's not just an accident. that means it's negligence AND an accident.
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Again, after the fact it is easy to say whatever we want to say about an accident. But at some point isn't "fail-safe" a concept that boils down to a question of semantics. Is it even possible to have a true "fail-safe" system? I don't think it is, therefore all we have is what we think may be a "fail-safe" system, until it fails. In the case of this oil leak the term "fail-safe" was used but there was evidence that the systems could fail. I believe even the regulators knew this, and I think it is common sense. No one really believes we can drill for oil with a zero risk of an oil leak. We, as a society, accept the risk based on our desires for oil and our willingness to give companies like BP the rights to drill for it. Sure there will be a price BP pays, and it is a price they should pay - including punitive damages. This sends a message to everyone else in the market, but just because some now have the illusion, of a true "fail-safe" system does not directly mean there was negligence.