Wrist slap: Run a red light, kill three kids -- hey, I thought it was green.

In which we learn that "Kentuckiana" isn't the only place in the country where drivers are not held accountable when they murder walkers and persons riding bicycles.

The Oregonian: Run a Red Light and Kill 3 Kids? “Just a Tragic Accident”, by Angie Schmitt (Streetsblog)

In February, a pickup truck driver in suburban Eugene, Oregon, ran through a red light at 40 miles an hour, killing three children — 4-year-old Tyler Hudson, 5-year-old McKenzie Hudson, and 8-year-old John Day — and critically injuring their mother. The family was walking with the right-of-way in a crosswalk, returning from getting ice cream.

The response to this horrible loss of life? Law enforcement and the state’s largest paper, The Oregonian, have chalked it up as a “tragic accident.”

The Lane County district attorney recently announced there won’t be any criminal charges for the driver, Larry LaThorpe, 68, formerly a commercial truck driver. LaThorpe’s defense is simple enough: He thought the light was green. And that, it seems, is all you have to say to avoid prosecution for killing three children with your motor vehicle.

Crosswalks are not safe when 80,000 trucks run red lights.

Saturday afternoon. The truck is southbound on State Street. In the photo above, although the light at Spring already has changed from green to red, the driver is in the process of accelerating, which means that he's increasing speed as he runs the red light.

Warren Nash and Jeff Gahan think this is safe.

Why is that?

Before the snow, there was a vacuum truck and doughnuts.

On Wednesday, Matt Nash posted this photo at Facebook.

Just witnessed this city vacuum truck run the red light at Vincennes and Elm. On their way to a storm water emergency? Nah, they're on a doughnut run.

Perhaps there is an ordinance expressly permitting the running of red lights by city vehicles if doughnuts are at stake -- and Honey Creme's an icon, for sure.

Problem is, much like the ordinance absolving the city from sidewalk snow clearing, no one can seem to find it, although on second thought, maybe the Bored of Works has mistaken it for a DemoDisneyDixiecratic Party by-law.

Paging Mr. Disney ...

The Universal Linen truck ignores rules of the road on a road designed precisely for that.

We were driving eastbound on Market Street at 8:40 a.m. on Wednesday, and came to a stop for a red light at the intersection of Market and Bank. We were in the left lane. In the right lane, a Universal Linens truck pulled up alongside us, somewhat reluctantly observing the red light. He was several feet past the crosswalk, well into the intersection.

The light turned green, and I decided to adhere to the posted 25 mph speed limit as we proceeded eastward. You can see in the photo above how far ahead the Universal Truck already was after just two blocks.

The preceding photo shows the red light at 7th Street, which the already speeding Universal Linen truck went through without so much as slowing.

That's just daily life on New Albany's designed-for-recklessness, unregulated, arterial streets. City Hall doesn't care very much ... perhaps even less than the Universal Linen truck's driver. If it did, it would do something about it.