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What is a reasonable penalty for a car driver who kills or seriously injures a motorcyclist, bicyclist, pedestrian, or even another car driver?
We know what’s not reasonable: The $70 fine imposed on an Iowa driver for crossing the center line of a highway and killing three motorcyclists. The sentence handed down to an Oklahoma woman, putting her on probation for 30 months and ordering her to perform unspecified “acts of kindness and generosity†after she pleaded guilty to negligent homicide for killing a motorcyclist who was slowing to make a right turn. The 10-day suspended sentence and three-month driver’s-license suspension for an Ohio driver convicted of vehicular homicide after backing out of a driveway into the path of an oncoming motorcyclist, who was killed.
None of those penalties comes close to addressing the consequences of those crashes. But what is reasonable? That’s the complex question we’ve tried to deal with in developing the AMA’s Justice for All legislation. This came directly from the AMA website, please visit the site and learn what You can do to help support our right to ride safely...
What is a reasonable penalty for a car driver who kills or seriously injures a motorcyclist, bicyclist, pedestrian, or even another car driver?
We know what’s not reasonable: The $70 fine imposed on an Iowa driver for crossing the center line of a highway and killing three motorcyclists. The sentence handed down to an Oklahoma woman, putting her on probation for 30 months and ordering her to perform unspecified “acts of kindness and generosity†after she pleaded guilty to negligent homicide for killing a motorcyclist who was slowing to make a right turn. The 10-day suspended sentence and three-month driver’s-license suspension for an Ohio driver convicted of vehicular homicide after backing out of a driveway into the path of an oncoming motorcyclist, who was killed.
None of those penalties comes close to addressing the consequences of those crashes. But what is reasonable? That’s the complex question we’ve tried to deal with in developing the AMA’s Justice for All legislation. This came directly from the AMA website, please visit the site and learn what You can do to help support our right to ride safely...
