From the NY Times:
A senior Defense Department official in Washington said Monday that the checkpoint the Italians' car was approaching consisted of two barriers across the road, but the official could not say what the barriers were made of, how large they were or whether they were permanent or temporary. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said two Army Humvees had been parked near the checkpoint, but apparently not on the road itself.
Another senior Pentagon official reiterated the military's initial statement that the Italians' car had been traveling at high speed. Ms. Sgrena has said her car was traveling slowly when she and her colleagues came under fire.
The Pentagon official did not offer new details on the incident, but suggested that the Italians' car had not responded to soldiers' hand signals, flashing lights and warning shots - steps the official said soldiers would have taken to warn the car to stop. "There were any number of cars passing through that checkpoint that night," said the second official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity. "They fired on that car for a reason."
From the military blog:
An Italian journalist/hostage, who was recently freed by the insurgents, was riding in a car on her way to the Baghdad Airport. Her driver failed to stop at a Coalition traffic control point (TCP), and she was shot. Another person in the vehicle was killed. There are big signs at TCP's, saying "All vehicles must stop." There are red flashing lights, glow sticks, and Soldiers with white flashlights. There are concrete barriers and razor wire. The American and Coalition Soldiers who man TCPs are trained to use graduated levels of force to stop those who try to run TCP's. This is to guard against people with cars full of explosives, who drive right up to sensitive areas and detonate their cargo. Some drivers, even without explosives, will simply ram their cars into our guys. How were they to know who was in this car? All they knew is that there was a car speeding toward them, and it wasn't responding to the various warnings that were in place.
I don't know the Soldiers who did the shooting. But I have seen a few of their sworn statements. And while I can't comment specifically on the investigation, my impression is that there is nothing abnormal in the way these Soldiers did their jobs. Why the driver didn't stop -- or even slow down -- at the TCP is beyond me.
Had those soldiers intended her to be dead, she would be.
Anyone that's ever driven in Italy knows why. Brakes are optional and frowned upon.