Posted on 05/26/2005 9:09:09 AM PDT by m1-lightning
Flowers and a melancholy note from grieving family members wilted in the rain on a telephone poll at the corner of Nesper Street and Ryan Avenue in Mayfair yesterday, just a few yards from where a young mother was fatally injured last month.
Sarah McGinley, 18, was pinned by an out-of-control car on her fiance's front lawn on April 17, just seconds after she tossed her 1-year-old daughter to safety. She died from her injuries a few hours later.
Yesterday morning, the District Attorney's Office announced it was filing charges against the driver, Megan Miller, 15, and her father, Richard Miller, 46.
With her father alongside her, Megan Miller was practicing driving in the parking lot of Abraham Lincoln High School when the car crashed through a fence, sped across an intersection and soared up the lawn, hitting McGinley. Miller did not have a learner's permit or a driver's license.
The teen is charged with being involved in an accident involving death or personal injury while not being properly licensed, and will be tried in juvenile court.
Her father is being charged with involuntary manslaughter and homicide by vehicle. He could face up to 12 years in prison, said D.A. spokeswoman Cathie Aboo-kire.
Both father and daughter surrendered to the police accident-investigation division yesterday afternoon, said the family's attorney, Fortunato Perri Jr.
"It is an impossibly difficult time for them," Perri said. "They have nothing but grief for McGinley's family."
The Millers are expected to have separate preliminary hearings within the next week, Perri said.
In both cases, "I think the judge will evaluate the situation and see it's nothing more than an accident. She lost control of the vehicle and was unable to stop what happened. It's a shame," he said.
Local criminal-defense attorney A. Charles Peruto said he believes that juvenile court will be kind to Megan Miller. "The most likely outcome is that they will defer adjudication. They'll leave her in limbo until she's 18 and then wipe her record clean," Peruto said.
The reason, he said, is that as a "young, nonindependent person," she was just following her father's instructions to practice driving.
District Attorney Lynne Abraham viewed the Millers' accident different from Peruto. She cited Pennsylvania law stating that drivers must obtain learner's permits before they can possess a driver's license. "Then and only then may you get behind the wheel of a lethal vehicle and drive the car," she said.
Abraham also faulted Richard Miller for allowing his daughter to drive his 1999 Mercury Grand Marquis, even though they were in a deserted parking lot. If Miller had denied his daughter a driving lesson, "that would have prevented a young mother from dying, and a child from being orphaned for her entire life."
McGinley's daughter, Victoria Wagner, is being cared for by her fiance and his parents.
I don't have it but if I'm feeling ambitious I'll get it later. Baseball game tonight so I have to run.
My Dad's from TN and I know he was driving on their property at 14 or so. Another poster cited similar OK law earlier in the thread. Guessing you'll find it in more rural states. Definately not okay here. This was in a very congested part of Philadelphia, not a wide open suburban school.
Please.
An accident is something over which you have no control. i.e., lightning. heart attack. log falling off a log truck just as you go by it.
While you do not control the actions of other drivers, you do control your own actions. Failure to act to avoid a collision could be construed as allowing a collision to occur. Allowing it to occur is nearly as bad as making it occur. Thus, in that sense, most vehicular deaths/injuries are due to negligence in some form or another, by usually more than one party.
We have an infamous incident two years ago and his mom is crying to the state legislature about it.
Eighteen year old kid driving in afternoor rush hour traffic. A person alleged to be on a cell phone moves into his lane in front of him. He panicks and swerves hard to the left, jumping the medium, crashing head-on into other vehicles killing himself and severely injuring others.
He never made contact the the vehicle he was to be avoiding. He was not rational and killed himself. His momma is crying to ban driving with cell phones. State Law (Texas) says that he was at fault since there was no contact with the other vehicle in his direction of travel.
Bump for later
I learned to drive (better) from a boyfriend, too. To this day am not a fearful "girl" behind the wheel. Great thing to know. Never know when a lady will need to deck her date for being fresh and drive home herself!
Anytime anything bad happens, it has to be a crime. There are no accidents. Someone is ALWAYS responsible in some way. This is the new orthodoxy.
What a horrible thing to happen to all involved. Sometimes I get the feeling that we're all just one horrible accident away from 10 to 20 in the slammer.
I was taught to drive by my father, but since he was a lawyer, I drove only on our private property until I had a permit.
So there's the permit issue -- she should have had one. Yes, accidents do happen. I try to think back to my own experiences and teaching my children. Could we have gone completely out-of-control like this?
Sounds like Dad wasn't being prudent and expected a little too much, too soon. The first thing you learn is how to STOP the car.
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