Vehicular manslaughter?
I don't care that "it was an accident," mandatory jail sentence for taking a life and no "one year (suspended) sentence where the 'poor' driver serves whatever time it takes to bond-out either! Maybe after a couple of years in jail they won't be doing so-much texting, eating behind the wheel, talking on the cell, or picking their nose and examining the booger up-close while they ram the unfortunate souls in-front of them into Heaven.
Oh, and after they get out that's when they start serving their revoked driver's license duration, does ten years sound about right? And if they get caught driving, back into jail. No 'hardship license,' either. Their life should be miserable for many years because they cost someone else theirs, and seriously hurt another.
Please, put me on that jury!
I was in the college crosswalk today when I saw a Japanese economy car approaching. The young female had her head down texting w/her left hand while she rolled through the stop sign for the crosswalk I was halfway-across, missing me because I saw she wasn't paying attention, and stopped. If I assumed, "she's gonna stop, it's a stop sign after all," and kept walking, she would have run me over as I would have been directly in-front of her auto and about two-arm's length from the stop sign.
When I saw her start to cross the pedestrian striping (just done, so it was nice & fresh, not faded-out) I began screaming at her, "STOP, STOP!" She looked up at me, and made eye contact, and just kept rolling-along, she didn't even look like she stopped texting, her thumb never left the keyboard, she didn't slam on the brakes, she just didn't care.
My next comments were about 'ceasing the texting, paying attention to driving, and do not hit pedestrians in a crosswalk,' and of-course I did it in a polite and courteous fashion, never raising my voice...:biglaugh:
I expect she wondered 'what is that old man so-excited-about?' as she kept on going, oblivious to everything around her. At least the fire/rescue unit that took me to the E.R. would probably be staffed by some of my former students or adjunct faculty I have, and I would have been able to say, "hello" to the E.R. staff where I take students...:bang head:
I feel so-sorry for the victims' families. That driver shouldn't see freedom for years when they are convicted. Oh, and I hope the victims get a civil suit judgement against the driver too, so if the driver does finally get back into the community, they have to pay financially for years and years the income lost by having a wage-earner killed or injured.