Pages

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Falling drone knocks woman unconscious at Seattle Pride:mashabl.com

Seattle-pride-drone-01

One point for the "technology-is-ruining-everyone's-lives" camp: a wayward drone struck a 25-year-old woman and rendered her unconscious during Sunday's Pride parade in downtown Seattle.
See also: Enrique Iglesias sliced his fingers open trying to grab drone at concert
According to the Seattle Police Department, the woman was in the crowd at the parade by 4th Avenue and Madison when an 18"-by-18" drone crashed into a nearby building and fell into the crowd, striking her in the head in an extraordinary turn of bad luck.
The SPD reports that the woman's boyfriend caught her as she fell, before an off-duty firefighter helped treat her and called for police.
Witnesses were able to turn in the drone in question (which weighed in at about two pounds and retails at around $1,200) and provided police with photos of a man who may have been piloting the unmanned aircraft. Witnesses described him as "an unshaven white male in his 20s, wearing a baseball cap, sunglasses, cut off shorts." Oh, and he also had a "noticeable" tattoo of a woman on his body.
A representative from the Seattle Police Department tells Mashable, "The drone’s pilot came forward and contacted police. Detectives continue to investigate the case."
Personal usage of unmanned model aircrafts for hobby or recreation, though currently legal, must follow guidelines as stated by the Federal Aviation Administration.
This particular drone pilot seems to have violated some key safety regulations: don't fly your drone near people, remain clear of surrounding obstacles, and don't be careless or reckless. The suspect now risks being fined for recklessly endangering other people.
But as you would suspect, technology is moving faster than the law. It's difficult to keep track of personal drone usage, and the FAA is still trying to catch up to safety regulation offenders.
In January 2015, a National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency employee crashed a small aircraft on White House grounds, but there were no policies put in place specifically for drones. After identifying that small security gap, the Secret Service began testing their own drones, though they declined to comment on their purposes.

No comments:

Post a Comment