Posted on 05/15/2012 3:11:26 AM PDT by ETL
NEW CANAAN, Conn. (CBSNewYork) — A high school junior is facing homicide charges after being accused of running down a [] jogger in Fairfield County.
Police said the accident was as simple as it was deadly. The cell phone was out in the driver’s hand and the car veered for just a moment over the white line at the edge of the road before a sickening impact that left 44-year-old Kenneth Dorsey dead.
Now, the 16-year-old driver who hit him has been charged with negligent homicide. The juvenile was called in by Norwalk Police for an emotional reckoning. ..."
[snip]
Authorities know when the accident happened from the 911 calls that came in and the cell phone contained the rest of the information they needed, including where the driver was, what she was doing and when she did it.
The very thing police said distracted her, sealed her fate, Young reported.
“We do a forensic analysis of the phone after we get a search warrant for it,” Chief Rilling said.
The victim’s companion said the arrest will help only if it spreads the word about the dangers of distracted driving. She said she thinks about the young driver a lot.
“I can’t even imagine what she’s feeling and what her family is feeling. I sympathize with that, but at the same time, she’s still here and can still do good from this and Ken is not,” Dawn Jeffrey said.
(Excerpt) Read more at newyork.cbslocal.com ...
Just out of curiousity, how many “free” negligent homicides do I get? Is the number a function of whether the victim could see me coming?
I agree. My first question was which way was the runner facing.
I think most states have laws on the books directing pedestrians to walk/run against the traffic. My parents made me do so when I was a child.
I now see too many people walking/running with the flow of traffic and too many people riding their bikes against the traffic. That is the opposite of what is safe and also probably the law.
I have been riding motorcycles for most of my life and share a healthy respect for cagers and treat each one as if they cannot see me or as if they would not mind running over me.
I could not agree more. Put down the phone and drive. If 28 year old my daughter calls me or my wife we ask her if she’s driving, and if she says yes, we tell to pull over and call back. She has stopped calling us while driving.
The cell phone should not be a factor until it becomes unlawful to use a cell phone while driving...
If the man was running with the traffic, he was on the wrong side of the road...Had he been of the right side of the road, she wouldn't have hit him...Plus, he may have been able to avoid a vehicle going over the line had he seen it coming...
It likely was not a sharp turn over the line but a gradual drift...
A section of my regular jogging route is on a fairly busy road with ten foot wide shoulders.
I jog facing the traffic.
I do, occasionally, have to move way left when someone drifts onto the shoulder.
Inevitably, they are yacking on their cellphone at the time. (Predominately, they are female.)
Sometimes, you see the sudden realization on their face that they are about to run over a jogger. Other times, they remain oblivious as you veer out of the way.
If she lived in Massachusetts, she’d become Senator for Life.
Heck, in NYC, I saw 4 lanes painted on the road - but FIVE lane of traffic!
I could never drive in that nuthouse.
Most older people do that, since we were taught to walk on the left. Lately we have seen a lot of younger kids walking in the same direction traffic is moving.
I’d say the stupid b!tch ruined her life just fine without any help from Nanny State.
We need to bring back corporal punishment for situations like this. At a minimum she needs a dozen lashes. Some permanent scars on her back would be a good reminder about focusing her attention on driving.
....I'm not overly sypathetic. Does she need to do jail time for this? Probably not. But does she need to get behind the wheel of a car again? Probably not, either.
Forensic analysis of phones is becoming much more common after accidents.
These days the data on there will also include passwords and credit card numbers if you surf the web with it and occasionally buy things.
Might be pictures that prosecutors might think are indicators of criminal activity.
It might be usefull to know how to quickly wipe your phone and then “lose” the sim card. Then it’s just a non working phone. It will then take a search warrant for them to try and get information and by then your lawyer can intercede.
I’m not sayin that this girl should have done that, she deserves to go to jail. But these days the LEO’s will take phones in any fender bender if they want to.
In my metro Boston area town, I am constantly amazed at the pedestrians on our winding, sidewalk-free roads. In the morning, at dawn, it is the walkers, dogwalkers and joggers, often not facing the traffic, sometimes two abreast. In the afternoon, even worse, there are often women (either mothers or nannies) pushing baby carriages along while drivers are rushing home. They all seem to think they’re too fabulous for someone not to see them and look out for them. Tragedies waiting to happen.
Drifting across the white line is an minor, offense...not deserving of a jail sentence.
Drifting across the white line AND killing someone, is NOT a minor offense, and severe punishment should ensue.
But you don’t seem to draw a distinction between the two. Please explain that to the dead man’s family.
if you have joggers running a foot outside the white lines in the same direction as traffic you might want to consider going to your local S&M store and buying some sort of a slap stick to carry with you when driving....
That is the seminal difference: observation.
Those who are distracted aren't observing the flow of traffic, aren't observing pedestrians, bicycles, motorcycles, or objects in their path.
That leads to what are popularly called "accidents", but what are actually in the majority of cases negligent operation of the vehicle.
The cell phone is just another device by which the driver can be distracted from their primary task: operating the vehicle safely.
Both in 4-wheeled vehicles and while operating motorcycles I have on countless occasions avoided collisions by being more observant than those who were supposed to yield the right-of-way or even be driving in the other lane. In the past few years, cell phones have been evident in more than half of those incidents.
It is sad that the runner died, and that the girl is responsible for running him down--regardless of his poor choice of a place to run. Unfortunately, incidents such as this serve as grim reminders that the person behind the wheel is responsible for what they do with their vehicle and the results of those actions, insofar as they can control the outcome through their actions.
What I want to know, is if 'Driver's Education' is still being taught in schools. Maybe that would be time better spent than putting prophylactics on produce.
There are court decisions that have held a can be a dangerous weapon. Being such the driver has an added burden of using it with care. I don’t think using a cell phone while driving meets the standard required. Don’t make the victim a defendant. The young lady deserves time in prison to grow up and learn to respect the rights of those around her.
It's not illegal to snort Clorox while driving either...but would be very distracting also...and probably lead to an accident.
Since driving well is 99% judgment, you betray that assertion when you say this:
This jogger in all likelihood was running with his back to traffic one or two feet from the edge of the road and the DA is looking to be the next Mike Nifong or Martha Coakley as I mentioned.
If you believe anything this jogger did, short of running directly into the line of traffic, absolves the driver of any of her responsibility, I question your judgment.
When I drive, I consider it my responsibility to keep my car from hitting random stuff (light poles, mail boxes, humans) along the side of the road.
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