This is why prosecutors don’t like to bring neg homicide charges against drivers who are not impaired. A San Antonio jury found the driver not guilty:
Gilbert John Sullaway Jr., 43, could have faced up to 10 years in prison if found guilty of criminally negligent homicide for the Oct. 1, 2009, deaths of Gregory and Alexandra Bruehler.
The married couple were sharing a tandem bicycle on a wide, paved shoulder of Texas 16 when they were struck by the defendant’s pickup.
Although there was some wrangling about the driver’s speed and actions just prior to the collision, but the general facts of the case were clear-cut —
a driver left the roadway at speed and rear-ended a pair of cyclists (on a tandem), killing them. There were no visibility limitations; (it was daylight, straight ahead, no sun glare; cyclists were wearing “brightly colored” jerseys… “There’s no explanation as to why he never saw two brightly dressed people riding an 8-foot-long bicycle, Assistant District Attorney Lorina Rummel said”).
The defense, as would be expected, used the there-but-for-the-grace-of-god-go-i argument (But Sullaway’s mistakes that day could have been made by anyone in the courtroom, the defense countered. “Have you ever drifted? Have you ever looked off the roadway?” Mark Stevens asked jurors. “That’s what people do. It doesn’t mean they’re criminals when they do it.”).
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For the curious; in Arizona, the neg hom statute ,§13-1102, says the accused must be shown to be criminally negligent
” ‘Criminal negligence’ means… that a person fails to perceive a substantial and unjustifiable risk…
of such nature and degree that the failure to perceive it constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care that a
reasonable person would observe in the situation.
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I’d be happy if motorists who are unable to control their vehicles lost their driving privileges until it could be proven that what caused the problem won’t happen again. Negligent homicide charges might not be needed at all.
Here’s why it’s so difficult to prove negligent homicide: because A.R.S. Title 28 (Transportation) Chapter 3 Article 4 prejudges collisions to be accidents, rather than the result of negligence as most collisions turn out to be.
The law needs to be rewritten. Replacing the word “accident” wherever it appears with the word “collision” would make the law, and those who enforce it, more neutral.