[Mr Spock]

Interesting. If the victims feel it was an accident, then it was an accident. Hopefully the judge won't send the guy away to prison to fill up a bed, that should be used by a violent offender, for being an idiot.

[Arthalion]

"Donald is a family man...He is a hard-working and very good man who is very good with children...the kids look up to him as a positive role model"

And later on...

"convicted of armed robbery with great bodily injury and assault with a deadly weapon...arrested four times for violating his parole...convicted in Fairfield of a misdemeanor and sentenced to three years probation"

Yeesh, this whole family sounds like a bunch of real prizes. They want their kids to look up to a habitual, repeat offender as a role model? Pathetic.

That said, I don't see the justification in sending him to prison for 25 years. Just about everyone has packed more people into their car than they had seatbelts at one time or another, and in most states this isn't even a crime (IIRC, less than 20 states have the 1 passenger per seatbelt rule). The tune would have been different if he'd been committing some real crime when the accident occurred, but that wasn't the case here.