| April
2007 |
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The Legislative Issue Meaningful Penalties for Drivers Who Kill |
Meaningful Penalties for Drivers Who Kill
A few years ago, this publication followed a case in which a gravel
hauler made a right turn on a red light down the street from Lyons
Township High School and ran over a 15-year-old student in the crosswalk.
The killing in LaGrange provoked a local outcry because the trucker was given a minor citation for failing to yield to a pedestrian. He paid a $100 fine after being found guilty (the trucking company later settled with the victim’s family for $2 million). LaGrange prosecutor John Kenney Jr. said the state didn’t have many alternatives. A charge of reckless homicide wouldn’t hold up. Other prosecutors would agree with that because reckless homicide requires a finding that the accused acted purposefully, with a knowing acceptance of a specific risk, and with willful and wanton disregard for the safety of others. The story repeats itself thoughout Illinois. Forced to choose between charging a driver with a petty offense or a class 3 felony with a 14-year prison sentence, prosecutors in Illinois do not often seek meaningful, fair penalties for motorists who fail to exercise care to avoid killing pedestrians or bicyclists. The problem with prosecuting people for “reckless homicide” under the Illinois Criminal Code is establishing that a motorist acted in a “willful and wanton” manner. In effect, one has to prove that someone who did not intend to injure or kill anyone did, in fact, intend to cause harm. The only way around proving intent is that there is an aggravating factor, such as alcohol or drug impairment or fleeing from the scene of a fatal crash. Champaign County State’s Attorney Julia Rietz refers to this “significant hole in Illinois law” as she lobbies for a bill recently introduced in the General Assembly to create the new class A misdemeanor offense of negligent vehicular homicide. House Bill 1382, co-sponsored by State Representatives William B. Black, Naomi D. Jakobsson, Chapin Rose, Shane Cultra and Renée Kosel, would make negligence that causes a traffic death punishable by up to one year incarceration in the local correctional center, or by a community-based sentence of public service work and education. HB 1382 was drafted in response to the Sept. 8, 2006 killing of University of Illinois engineering student Matt Wilhelm. He was hit while riding a bicycle by a motorist who admitted that she was downloading ring tones to her cell phone rather than watching the road. “A negligent vehicular homicide law would help Illinois prosecutors more appropriately address tragic circumstances such as Matt Wilhelm’s death, and would benefit all users of our public roadways,” Reitz says. David Callahan is communications director for the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation
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