Posted on 10/25/2006 12:57:41 PM PDT by grjr21
Investigators said his cruiser ran a stop sign, killing 2 teenage sisters.
Authorities issued traffic tickets yesterday to a state trooper who allegedly ran a stop sign and killed two teenage sisters when his police cruiser crashed into their minivan.
Trooper Robert Higbee was charged with careless driving and failure to stop. The charges came during a criminal investigation into the Sept. 27 accident.
The two sisters - Jacqueline G. Becker, 17, and Christina M. Becker, 19 - had borrowed their grandmother's minivan for a quick, late-night run to Wawa for a gallon of milk.
The girls, planning to spend the night at their grandparents' home, complained that the milk in the refrigerator smelled sour, so they went to buy fresh milk for their breakfast cereal.
Their mother, Maria Caiafa, said she is tormented by questions without answers.
"Why did my kids have to go for milk and at that split second? Why did the state trooper run the stop sign?" Caiafa said yesterday. "It was split-second timing. They could have stayed at Wawa for a few more seconds. Higbee could have been a little bit farther up the road. There are a million things... . "
Caiafa's eyes crested with tears as she spoke of the loss of her only children. Holding a balled-up tissue in her fist, she sat on the couch next to her parents inside their Upper Township home, not far from Ocean City.
Cape May County Prosecutor Robert L. Taylor announced the traffic charges against Higbee in an afternoon news conference outside the grandparents' home. Caiafa stood behind Taylor and listened from the front steps.
"My heart and prayers go out to the mother," said Taylor, a father of four girls. "Certainly I can only imagine the trauma she is going through... . I can only imagine the emptiness she must feel."
State law dictates that traffic summonses must be filed within 30 days of an accident, Taylor said.
If convicted, Higbee could face up to $200 in fines and 15 days in the county jail for each charge, Taylor said.
Taylor set no deadline for concluding the criminal investigation, which is being conducted jointly by his office and the New Jersey State Police.
"We're going to do it thoroughly," Taylor said. "Anybody who suggests we should rush and file charges just for the sake of speed, I don't think is doing justice or doing a thorough job in the investigation."
Taylor declined to say whether Higbee was speeding or answering an emergency call at the time of the 10 p.m. accident. Taylor said he did not believe that Higbee, who has not returned to work at the Woodbine barracks, was traveling with lights and sirens.
Witnesses say Higbee, who was traveling northbound on Stagecoach Road, approached the intersection at a high rate of speed, according to the attorney for the girls' family.
When the patrol car struck the minivan, which was being driven westbound on Tuckahoe Road by the younger sister, both teenagers were partially thrown through the passenger-side window. The sisters died at the scene.
Caiafa, a 42-year-old middle school principal, said her daughters' father, from whom she is divorced, is also devastated. As for her, she has trouble getting out of bed.
"I've been very, very despondent, crying all the... ," said Caiafa, her sentence breaking off.
She said she dreamed of her daughters the other night. "My daughter Christina came up and hugged me and said, 'You have to cut it out, Mommy. We can't be happy if you're not happy. You need to suck it up and start being yourself again.' "
"Easier said than done," Caiafa said.
Her life, her daughters' lives, were erased in a moment, she said. Photos of her girls - grinning at Christmas and on vacation at Disney World - were spread on her parents' dining room table. A bouquet of roses delivered just after the accident still sat on the table. The blooms were brittle and drooped.
When asked about her feelings toward Higbee, she said she refuses to be caught up in hateful, destructive emotions.
"I'm sure that he's devastated," she said. "My heart bleeds for his family. We've all been thrown into this situation and it's a horrific situation... . It's something I wish never happened and I'm sure that he wishes never happened."
I was fined more than that for failure to use a turn signal
If it were me running a stop sign and killing two people, I'd be charged with vehicular homicide or manslaughter. Why is it such a slap on the wrist when it's a cop who is the one who violates the law and this negligence leads to loss of life?
Thats because we just don't have the right friends
Was he tested for alcohol consumption? I don't see in the article where it says he was or was not.
Why is this in chat and not breaking news?
I think the charges can still be upgraded, if they are able to determine that he was speeding and/or not using lights and sirens. Unfortunately, it sounds like the girls weren't wearing seat belts (both were partially "thrown" -- not squeezed -- through the passenger side window, according to the article), and they might well have survived if they had been. If it can be established that they weren't wearing seat belts, that would be a big mitigating factor in determining how much of the outcome was legally the fault of the trooper.
There are two systems of justice in our society. The men in my family are either cops or preachers and I know first hand how "discretion" works. Do you know any cops who have had to pay for speeding tickets? Do they never speed? Are they never DUI? They never have equipment violations? I heard a story just this weekend about a cop pulling over a NY Yankee super star for speeding. No, there was no ticket issued, just a good-old-story to tell over a beer. Then, there was a local politician's son who was DUI. A quick phone call and, poof, he was sober enough to drive home.
Trust me, I'm not bashing cops. It's just offensive to have two systems of justice.
Sure. I get that. But in that case or even a DUI where no crash ocurred is easy to look the other way, write no ticket, drive the guy home and never speak of it again. Wink wink.
But when two people are dead, well, thats a whole different matter. If it's a tragic accident, well, that happens sadly. But when the cop is speeding and running a light its a whole different beast. I mean, even if only for PR control you would think they would do more than give the guy a speeding ticket in this extraordinary situation.
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