[acad1228]

They were in a parking lot. Traffic laws do not apply. The father could be charged with reckless endangerment or manslaughter.

[beezdotcom]

They were in a parking lot. Traffic laws do not apply. The father could be charged with reckless endangerment or manslaughter.

That's really the issue, here. (Although another mitigating factor might be whether or not she was in fact elegible for the permit, but just hadn't gotten it. If so, then the lack of a permit could be shown to be irrelevant to the crime, and not a contributing factor.)

[drjimmy]

They were in a parking lot. Traffic laws do not apply.

They were in a parking lot up until the moment when the car "crashed through a fence, sped across an intersection and soared up the lawn," so traffic laws most certainly do apply. Additionally, since the parking lot itself was at a school, it is public rather than private property, and therefore traffic laws probably apply there as well.

[latina4dubya]

They were in a parking lot. Traffic laws do not apply.

what do you mean? don't parking lots have speed limits? i thought they did...

[GovernmentShrinker]

They were in a parking lot. Traffic laws do not apply.

You should check state law on that. While few if any states have restrictions on driving without a license on truly private property (i.e. kids driving on their family's farm), most DO apply licensing and various other traffic/vehicle requirements to driving on public property (such as the public high school parking lot that these two started out in), and to quasi-public property, such as parking lots owned by malls and multi-store shopping centers, where the general public is invited to drive.

And it's not irrelevant that this accident occurred when the driver crossed a PUBLIC road intersection, before crashing into adjacent private residential property.

[JIM O]

Traffic laws do apply in a parking lot, and on public property. A person is responsible if you do faulty electric work and practically anything else if you do it without a license especially if it results in death.