State Sen. Joe McDermott (D-34), says he will introduce legislation next Tuesday that would allow cities to make it a crime to kill or seriously injure someone while violating a traffic law. Currently, killing someone with your car is either a civil infraction (punishable by a traffic ticket) or, in rare cases, a felony; felony vehicular assault or homicide requires “reckless driving,” intoxication, or reckless disregard, all of which are much harder to prove than that someone was, for example, barreling into a crosswalk without looking. “It gives municipalities a more reasonable option” than merely issuing a ticket or trying to prove felony assault, McDermott says.
Assault By Vehicle Legislation to be Introduced on Tuesday
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Besides just pedestrians, I hope this covers bicycles, motorcycles and even people in other cars.
Way too many idiots seriously injure people in their “accidents” because of their fucking negligence and stupidity.
what are you talking about? if i hit somebody, they deserve it because:
A) I am in a car.
B) They are a pedestrian who is,
a)a fucking idiot
b)who is high on drugs.
right? right? right?
RCW 46.61.520 already states that a driver can be guilty of vehicular homicide if they operate a motor vehicle “with disregard for the safety of others.” Wouldn’t “barreling into a crosswalk without looking” qualify as such?
time to build a granny prison!
how about if we just make driving a felony and cut out all the middle stuff?
Why would you need to make a separate law for this? Isn’t the law kind of like “don’t behave like an asshole and kill somebody accidentally or you’ll go to jail, end of story”? I mean did they write the legislation “Don’t behave like an asshole and kill somebody accidentally or you’ll go to jail…” and then slip in the clause, “….except if you’re in a car, then you’re totally golden!”? Otherwise, how would this loop hole exist?
Dumb dumb dumb. The LAST thing pedestrians need is the government convincing them that crosswalks are safe. Crosswalks are, and will always be, a hazardous place to be, regardless of the law. Any law which further empowers pedestrians to insist on their right of way will lead to more deaths, not less.
If the government wants to be proactive about pedestrian safety (which is what this is all about), then they should do more to keep pedestrians out of traffic at the most dangerous locations (via pedestrian overpasses, tunnels, etc).
Everything involving a moving car is a dangerous business, whether you’re driving one, or walking/riding near one. No amount of legislation will change this, other than eliminating cars altogether.
In Seattle the pedestrians are such fucking pretentious self-righteous sanctimonious snobs about being pedestrians, and they are usually totally whacked on drugs. They step right out into the street without even lifting their gaze from its focus on the sidewalk. No wonder so many people get run over in Seattle. What a shithole full of shitty people.
Yay Joe McDermott!!!!
@3 Apparently defense lawyers find too many ways around it. I think to be driving “recklessly” is something like 20 over, whereas this law would apply if you were going over the speed limit. Much easier to prove infractions than felony & intent.
about time!
I thought about playing the self-righteous noncar commuter game, but instead I’ll suggest a more effective approach. How about requiring frequent re-tests of senior citizens for vision, reaction time, and driving skill? And how about raising driving age just ONE year, and making it significantly more difficult to get a license (skill wise)
Y.F.,
In fact, you have described the current situation perfectly. You can kill someone with a car without consequences. It’s the one exception to the general rule that there are serious consequences for murder. That’s the reason this new law is needed.