My colleague was struck and killed in Sacramento. Her death was not a traffic ‘accident’ | Opinion
As a UC Davis medical student who rides my e-scooter to campus every day, and an MD-PhD candidate who hopes to curb the crisis of motor vehicle crashes — the leading cause of death globally — I was devastated to learn of the violent death of my colleague, Dr. Geohaira "Geo" Sosa, a first-year psychiatry resident physician, on Thursday, August 29 near the corner of Folsom and Alhambra in East Sacramento.
Having often ridden past the spot where she was slain, it seems likely that while she was on her scooter in an unprotected bike line, a driver struck her while turning their box truck into a parking lot.
However, when our UC Davis Health community received an email notifying us of her passing, I was disappointed to hear our leadership refer to it still as an "accident."
Perhaps this is an unimportant semantic debate in the wake of a life upended, but having studied the impact of media on our perception of health at Harvard Medical School, I know all too well that the language that we broadly use to refer to these deaths influences our perception of their causes. In fact, when it comes to automobiles, American adults hold uniquely different attitudes toward car-related risk, rule-bending and consequences compared to other subjects, leading to a phenomenon Texas A&M researchers have referred to as "windshield-bias" or "motonormativity."
When deliberate choices and systemic ignorance of death continue over years and decades, can we truly call motor vehicle crashes "accidents?" No one intends to maim or kill another person on the roadway, but it is intentional that the infrastructure of our roads value efficiency over the preservation of life.
Although our harmful exceptions for cars and our behavior behind the wheel must be addressed by broader American society , we all need to reflect more deeply on the public health crisis that is traffic violence and stop accepting such losses as inevitable.
It's not a problem unique to us here, but year after year, the mortality rate of auto collisions in Sacramento County has continued to rise above both our state and country average, putting our metro region in the nation's top 20 deadliest .
Dr. Sosa's promise as a psychiatric resident adds to the devastation of her contributions to society being cut short. Tragically, over 120 of our neighbors in the region have been killed on Sacramento streets this year alone. I mourn deeply for Dr. Sosa and her family, and I hope that we can use the anger and sadness that we are feeling to put real effort toward preventing and mitigating such brutality to even more of us.
What can we do to actively work against traffic violence? It starts with our own driving mindset, but it also requires interdisciplinary professionals collaborating with urban planning and engineering colleagues to prioritize design that protects human safety when we feel rushed to get from Downtown to East Sac, Parkway to Rosemont or Natomas to Arden-Arcade. Any attempt to save time by increasing motor speed is ultimately futile , considering the accumulation of collisions, pollution exposure, inactivity and social isolation.
Although helmets are certainly a proven manner to reduce brain injury , unfortunately they aren't a cure-all, considering how vulnerable the remainder of our vital organs are to severe blunt force injury. This requires a comprehensive response.
In the capital of our great state that prides itself on leading our nation in progress , we should provide testimony and funding supporting blind spot reduction , turning vehicle calming , connected sidewalks , expanded public transportation , E-bike credit programs and car design guidelines that halts an arms race for personal protection .
In our own communities , along the dangerous stretches mentioned above, we can prevent death and injury in days instead of years through planning and participating in quick build infrastructure solutions , such as barriers, street furniture and landscaping. Especially around our offices, schools and parks, we can implement creative art crosswalks and reduce parked cars that hinder visibility around intersections, crosswalks and driveways without massive redesign or funding.
I hope that some of us taking even one of these steps can help us honor Dr. Sosa's memory, and, hopefully, lead to a future where, like infectious and chronic disease, we can perceive traffic violence as an unacceptable ill to society that we must fight to prevent.
Katarina Cook is a NorCal native, road safety advocate and MD-PhD student at the UC Davis School of Medicine and Institute of Transportation Studies.
