Sharing the road with bicyclists is a dangerous situation even when paying full attention. Much greater speed differences, a much smaller target to notice. Not a lot of imagination required to see how a brief lapse that you could get away with behind another car would be enough to overtake and strike a bicyclist.
As far as prosecution, if you are speeding by 20mph and manage to hit and kill someone, they will throw the book at you and it will probably stick. If you had a couple beers, they will throw the book at you and it will absolutely stick. Taking your eyes completely off the road for ten seconds is a much more dangerous impairment than either of the previous examples so it would seem illogical and inconsistent to give such inattention a pass.
Yet it's something we're all guilty of from time to time, the only thing that seperates us from this guy is that he picked the wrong moment to look away.
If I had been on the jury, I would have voted to acquit, but I wouldn't feel very good about it.
"Taking your eyes completely off the road for ten seconds is a much more dangerous impairment than either of the previous examples so it would seem illogical and inconsistent to give such inattention a pass."
I still remember the driver (a trucker, a professional too) who killed a highway worker and was acquitted due to the fact that he had fallen asleep and not misused his medication, as the jury found. I couldn't believe that you did not have a legal duty to stay awake behind the wheel. I believe this case was in NJ.