Tripping on life

T.A. Executive Director John Kaehny: Let’s say a mom is walking hand in hand with her young son across the street. They are coming back from a nice morning in the park, it’s broad daylight, they are in the crosswalk and have the walk signal. Suddenly, a motorist runs the red light and kills them both. The motorist pulls over and is found to be sober. Would that motorist be charged with a crime?

A.D.A McCormick: Limited to those facts, that motorist would be summonsed for running a red light. A criminal prosecution requires showing that the motorist ran the red light because of more than carelessness or inadvertence. The driver’s behavior at the time of running the light is usually the only way to prove the driver’s state of mind. The state of a person’s mind is a difficult thing to prove. They don’t generally yell out “I’m going through this light on purpose.”

...when is the legal responsibility of driving a vehicle going to kick in... criminally negligent homicide anyone?

http://www.streetsblog.org/2006/12/08/6-year-old-boy-fatally-hit-by-truck-in-brooklyn/

I post this only because I've become more and more interested in biking - since I live in Brooklyn it's a pretty easy thing to want to do. With legal loopholes such as this and the fact that NYPD have made it very clear they are not out looking for cyclists safety maybe it is safer to just take the subway.

Labels: bycyling

posted by ilennovy @ 9:41 PM