Think again:
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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.
You are truly the new face of FR.
Only if someone is, as in this case, injured or killed. In such instannces the responsible party (i.e. the father)can be charged with endangerment or neglegent homocide for failing to control the situation. If the girl had kept the car in the lot and accidently hit an unoccupied car, her father or his insurance company would be responsible for damages, but she would have commited no crime.
That argument would lead to illegal aliens can drive without a license or insurance as long as they are old enough.
Untrue. Driving to fast is negligence. Swerving to avoid a deer and hitting another car is an accident.
Negligence would imply lack of care or concern. If the father had no care or concern for the safety of pedestrians, then why did he choose a parking lot for the location?
Isn't the intent in this case the same? Wether or not the object that she hit was inanimate or something breathing (ie. human, dog, cat, etc.)?
Not really. Your car, cat, dog, or pink flamingo lawn ornament are considered property. Different laws apply.
Speaking of intent, this girl's intent was to learn to drive. her father's intent was to teach. No harm was intended. She lost control of the car and he failed to retain control if the situation. He is civilly and criminally liable for this young mother's death.
Ok...so to get a learner's permit, isn't a written test only required. After the permit is obtained, then you get behind the wheel. SO exactly HOW would the permit have prevented this young gal from letting the vehicle go out of control??
A horrible accident to be sure, but I think the DA is going a little overboard.
I needed a learner's permit to take driver's ed. I also attended this high school. The campus is huge, and the streets surrounding the school are wide, so that must have been one long, out-of-control, scenario.
...including the fact that the BRAKE will STOP an out of control car
I don't think so....rules of the road are tested. Not how to apply the brakes.
"Swerving to avoid a deer and hitting another car is an accident."
Nope it is just plain stupid and negligent. Your saying that putting more human life at risk to keep from hitting the deer is an acceptable reason to crash a car. I disagree.
I disagree. My father put me behind the wheel in a parking lot before I got my driver's license and taught me how to drive on ice... in that situation, the brake does not stop the car and you just have to learn to feel the car to get it to stop the best that you can.
Had I lost control a struck someone then we would have been in a similar situation. However, I didn't hit anyone and because of the training my father gave me that the state doesn't give to other drivers, I have avoided many accidents in the winter, one of which could have been fatal had my wife been driving because she has little experience behind the wheel on ice.
I'm telling PETA you said that. ;)
I was making a statement that a lot of people cannot drive, at the most they can only aim a car.
I agree that what the father did was wrong, but to put him in jail for something that he (and many other parents in the country) thought would be a simple "...lightly press on the gas pedal, drive in a few circles, ok now stop, put it in park and switch seats..." type of deal.
But what really annoys me about this situation is the way Abraham is going all pit-bull over it. There are for more pressing matters going on in the city that need her attention, this is something that should just be a citation and appearence in traffic court.
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