In American Courts, Drivers Still Innocent After Proven Guilty

When it comes to traffic fatalities, the scales of the American justice system are not weighted equally. Let's compare two cases.

A year ago a young mother was charged with vehicular homicide after her four-year-old son was struck by a drunk driver who fled the scene. The woman's crime, in the strict legal sense, was jaywalking (she was convicted, then, following national outrage, offered a retrial).

It didn't matter that Raquel Nelson wasn't the one who caused the collision. In fact, if she had been behind the wheel of the car, she probably would have faced a lighter penalty. The intoxicated driver who was responsible for her son's death was sentenced to just six months, while she faced three years.

In American courts, it seems there is no better immunity for killing someone than to be a driver. Here's a great example today out of Buffalo, reported by Charm City Streets. Being drunk, killing someone and fleeing the scene was still not enough to get a conviction when the perpetrator was cloaked in the body of an automobile:

Meanwhile, also on the Network today, a similar case out of Lee County, Florida: The local bike advocacy group is calling for intervention by the governor after police failed to bring charges in the death of a cyclist struck by a motorist of questionable sobriety, who swerved out of the designated lane and onto the shoulder. According to WalkBikeLee, police failed to even gather sufficient evidence to prosecute, which is so often the case with these types of crimes. The only charge the driver faced was "failure to drive within a single lane."

BikeWalkLee's Dan Moser had a number of questions, but the most pertinent of all seems to be: "Is FHP [Florida Highway Patrol] capable of properly investigating any fatality involving a bicyclist or a pedestrian?"

Elsewhere on the Network today: Transportation for America reports that a very important provision in the transportation bill, letting local governments access funds for street safety programs, may be under attack in the conference committee. Cascade Bicycle Club explains that Seattle's Sound Transit is spending a fortune on parking at a transit station in which 90 percent of passengers arrive by foot or bike. And MoBikeFed outlines how one Missouri county continues a campaign of obstructionist laws against cyclists.