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LindyMan
@PaulSkallas
Modern traffic law doesn’t treat driving as a special category of responsibility. If someone accidentally hits you and kills you, they don't face any jail time. We do treat some activities as special categories that trigger automatic jail time, carrying a gun, medicine, aviation, childcare, etc. Negligence brings real jail time fast. Driving kills more people than most of them. But because everyone drives, we built a set of laws that excuse the driver.
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San Francisco Chronicle
@sfchronicle
The woman prosecutors said killed a family of four after ramming into a bus stop with her car in San Francisco’s West Portal neighborhood will avoid jail time after changing her plea in court. sfchronicle.com/crime/article/
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David Watson 🥑
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Dan Nunn
@danyay
Yep, I think because we built our society to be basically inaccessible without a car (outside a couple pockets of metros), we give wide leniency towards auto crimes Even repeat DUI offenders get conditional licenses to drive to work
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A Wise Owl
@AWiseOwl_21
To an extent, this is sensible. No one wants to fund themselves in prison (on top of a mountain of guilt) for an unlucky accident that anyone in their position could have made. For me the biggest problem is: reckless drivers who don’t get unlucky never face real consequences.
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transcendent
@slawdarg
Skill does not override negligence, but it's fascinating that driving is the one near-universal practice that people can spend their whole adult life engaged in, constantly, and never see any improvement in competency. Quite the opposite over time.
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Kohl
@DogedeVenice
Car and oil companies paid our politicians to set it up that way. They also paid them to only build suburbs way away from everything you need to do and ban most other forms of family housing, now the family needs 5 cars.
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Live-Evil
@LiveEvil8
Driving strict liability means you can be convicted of a traffic violation or held responsible for an accident simply by committing the act (e.g., speeding, running a red light), regardless of your intent, knowledge, or "bad" mental state. It removes the need for prosecutors to
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Neolithic HVAC Technician
@AccurateCaption
A collision may be unintentional, while the cause of the collision (for example, speeding) was deliberate and without excuse. Inherently dangerous technologies (cars) and activities (driving) are subject to special laws that do often trigger criminal liability.
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Joey
@JMcniff1283
The real story here is Lau’s wealth allows her access to a more generous tier of justice most of us are not afforded.
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SharifofNottingham
@shariftouma1
That isn't accurate. In almost every state there is a category of homicide that includes negligent driving homicide. In my state, running a stop sign and killing someone is 2nd degree manslaughter. Carries up to 4 years. Most don't do time, but yes they are "facing" prison
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IntegralTree
@integraltree
Tort law and the concept of accidents existed prior to cars, but cars increase potential risk due to size and speed. All the other categories you list are the novel legal inventions, historically.
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Энди Вольф 🇸🇴🏴‍☠️☦️🔻
@Zli_poslodavac
Traffic laws see a person as a pedestrian, a category that participate in traffic. So in a "collision" with a motor vehicle its a fair game, both sides are the same, no one is protected.
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burby_geek
@burby_geek
this is only in blue states and the way they define manslaughter. in NY she would have probably been sent to jail even with the lax laws there. california probably treats it as an oops unless you're doing something crazy
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