Professor hit by car driven by student
Posted March 24, 2010 at 10:55 pm in News
A USC professor is in the hospital with injuries after being struck by a car on campus Wednesday.
Department of Public Safety Capt. David Carlisle said a USC student was driving south on McClintock Avenue toward 37th Street, when a female professor stepped off the curb by the Davis School of Gerontology and started to cross the street. As the professor was crossing, the student’s car struck her.
LAPD, DPS and an ambulance arrived on the scene and treated the victim. She was taken to California Hospital Medical Center.
This incident follows another on-campus accident that occurred March 12, when a student crossing McClintock Avenue behind Leavey Library failed to see an oncoming car. The student was hit by the car and hospitalized.
DPS officials warned that students should always look both ways before crossing.
“Never assume that you have the right of way,” Carlisle said. “Make sure you are seen by oncoming traffic and, more, that they stop for you.”
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i think that female asian drivers should not be allowed to drive on campus because i have seen them many a time driving dangerously. nuff said.
The people who have been on campus the longest, the staff, the faculty, the maintenance crews and the various bus drivers, are all usually careful and cautious when walking or driving on the grounds. The variable that changes constantly, is the student population. Even then, most students know to slow down and look both ways, whether in a car or on foot. But statistically you will have some students who are texting, eating or ipoding while moving, and these are the people who cause accidents.
There are safety procedures on campus, but if there is a demand for more aggressive tactics, I recommend DPS patrols the grounds and find the Texters, Ipoders and other distracted travelers on campus, and makes them wear neon yellow dunce caps, so that nearby travelers can be more cautious around them. If found without their caps, they should be fined 500 dollars, with the money going to the health clinic. Perhaps we can pair this with an ankle GPS bracelet so that the buss drivers have another method of tracking these spatially deficient people.
I hope the teacher gets better, and honestly, I hope the student loses her car privileges, but I think a little anger and sarcasm should be felt when reacting to this story; that is the only way change will happen so that we can avoid another accident. If all we do is cross our fingers and cry, we’ll find ourselves in the same situation after the next accident. So lets embrace the sarcasm, even if many don’t understand it or haven’t yet learned to see it’s use or application.
Start the fire of change, or cry about it and wallow in your mange.
Pedestrians should stay on the sidewalk. Yeah, sooner or later you need to cross a street and risk your life.
No one should be driving so fast down McClintock that they cannot stop for pedestrians or bikes. The area is full of pedestrians and drivers (and bikes) are supposed to yield to pedestrians.
This campus is becoming a death trap. The safety of the staff, faculty, and students, as well as visitors – school children, old and disabled people who come to the dental clinic, etc. is not being taken seriously. I can’t believe that the USC leaders can allow themselves this exposure . Maybe it’s time to join together and demand a safety policy. Cars shouldn’t even be on campus. The remaining parking lots should be moved, or use only entrances from outside streets. And there should be bicycle paths to protect pedestrians from speeding bicyclists.
As someone who has the displeasure of having to navigate my car through campus, I am not surprised something like this happened. People are frequently stupid–I can’t tell you how many times I have almost hit someone who decided they had the right of way in the middle of the street (no cross walk). Or how many bikers have popped up out of no where and passed right in front of my car, with me very narrowly missing them.
The road is made for vehicles–and if bikers want to be considered vehicles, they have to act like it and actually follow the damn rules. Sidewalks are made for pedestrians. And if pedestrians want to be treated as such, they should also follow the damn rules.
Random jaywalking, biking in the middle of the road (or even on the wrong side of the road), zig-zagging across the road on a skateboard, etc. are all incredibly stupid decisions–especially directly by a major parking structure on campus that has constant *vehicular* traffic in and out.
Yeah, it sucks that something like this happened. And I really hope everyone involved is okay. But at the same time, people need to start paying more attention.
If you have to explain satire/sarcasm that thoroughly to someone, perhaps the sarcasm is ill-placed in the first place…
I hope that the professor and student are doing fine.
Wow, somebody doesn’t understand what sarcasm is. This is college people, use some critical thinking skills. The second comment from “driver” is clearly critiquing the reported DPS response and the coverage of this incident by Daily Trojan reporter Nancy Martinez.
A lot of things went wrong, from the accident, to the alleged response and finally, the reporting. A little sarcasm helps embarrass people when they make mistakes, so they are more careful after the social taunting. This is a classic persuasion technique, straight out of the Marshall sub rosa book of leadership.
Who cares? She’s just a pedestrian: obviously not as important as someone driving a car. Chalk it up to experience, and tell her to quit whining about her so-called “injuries.”
Do we know how much damage she did to the victim’s car by so recklessly colliding with it? Like Officer Carlisle said in the article, cars have priority on campus, (especially at stop-signs, like the ones in front of Gerontology) and the professor should have exercised more caution, so the repair bill ought to come out of her paycheck.
If anything, this incident shows how important it is for DPS to ticket anyone riding a bike or walking in the McClintock corridor (especially near Jefferson). If we could simply convince more people to stop engaging in those dangerous activities, we’d all be a lot safer. I, for one, applaud the rapid response from DPS to catch this lawbreaking faculty member.
And, in case anyone is wondering about the editorial stance of the The Daily Trojan, you can tell that they agree with everything I’ve written by their use of the passive, blame-deflecting statement “… student’s car struck her,” instead of the more accurate “… was struck by a student driving a car.” Loves me that editorial bias.
There is a lot I would like to say about the previous comment, but I will keep this short as I refuse to engage in a debate with ignorance.
How would you feel if it had been a friend or family member of yours crossing the street who was hit by a car? This is a tragedy for all parties involved, and hopefully a lesson learned by all as well.
It is disgusting to me that you seem to value some humans’ lives and livelihoods over others’. Please think again before sharing your grossly biased and outrageously insensitive comments.
do we know who the professor is?