NY group launches campaign to crack down on drivers who kill

The New York Daily News and TransAlt are launching a campaign to hold accountable drivers who kill. According to the article launching the campaign:

. . . The News is launching its Save a Life, Change the Law campaign, so drivers who kill are held accountable for their actions just as killers who use more conventional weapons.

The problem is the law.

"In all the cases we've ever looked at, we've never seen a sober motorist get convicted for killing a pedestrian. Zero. None," said John Kaehny, executive director of Transportation Alternatives.

"The case law in New York State is obscene," he said. "It bends over backward to accommodate drivers." . . .

"But because the state Legislature has not made a clear distinction between what is civil negligence and what is criminal negligence, these cases are as heartbreaking as they are difficult to prove."

Mere recklessness is not enough to charge a driver with homicide, officials said.

The situation in Missouri exactly parallels the situation in Missouri. Here, too, it is hard to think of a case of a driver who kills someone being charged with anything more than a simple traffic infraction, unless the driver was intoxicated.

A major thrust of MoBikeFed's proposed 2004 Highway Safety Legislation is addressing this inequity in the law.

A major provision of the proposed legislation spells out that violating traffic law, when that violation leads to the injury or death of another person, is criminal negligence and can be prosecuted as assault or negligent homicide.