Tank
Gold Member
- Apr 2, 2009
- 18,809
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- Banned
- #41
When your brakes are smoking for miles and people are warning you to whats about to happen, it ain't no accident.Ponder this . . . thirty years ago, I represented a truck driver who killed a young boy. The driver was making a right turn on a red light at a city intersection. He had made a full stop and was looking to his left, to make sure no traffic was coming. None was. He began making his right turn. (It is legal to make a right turn on a red light in California, provided you make a full stop first and that no traffic is coming from your left.)
As he was making his right turn, there was a small boy coming at him on a bicycle. The boy was going against traffic, in violation of existing laws which required bicycle riders to go with traffic when riding on a street. The driver was still looking to his left (for oncoming traffic) as he started his right turn.
The kid rode right under the front, right wheel of the big rig and was killed instantly. The truck was not going faster than 5 mph at the time.
The driver was prosecuted for vehiclar manslaughter, convicted and required to do one year in the county jail.
Do you see that as justice? I don't. I see it as a tragic, almost unavoidable accident involving a truck driver performing a totally legal turning maneuver, and a boy coming from out of nowhere, going against traffic in violation of the vehicle code.
Vehicular manslaughter statutes should be stricken from our criminal justice system. You simply don't send people to jail or state prison because of accidents.
And for this other case you lost 30 years ago, sounds like the truck driver didn't look every way before making his turn, probably in a hurry like the other guy.