Street Justice

In the aftermath of a crash, we inevitably ask: How can a dangerous driver be kept off the road? It seems that the entire automobile transportation regime is aimed at keeping the driver behind the wheel. Absent impairment or flight from the scene of the crash, police quickly conclude that “no criminality is suspected.” The name of the responsible driver may be carefully guarded by police, even when the name of the victim or selective details are not. Government compels the insurance market to continue insuring the responsible driver, even if the market would consider the driver too risky to insure. The under-resourced legal system and insurance industry neglect and obstruct crash litigation, pressuring victims to simply accept whatever insurance is available without holding the driver personally responsible.

As mentioned in Street Justice last week, legislation has been proposed that would create felony liability in some cases where a driver flees the scene after seriously injuring or killing a person. At present, leaving the scene of a crash is a misdemeanor, often a class B misdemeanor punishable only by a fine of $250.00. That’s less than the fine for running a red light.  That we attach so small a consequence to the outrageous act of injuring a person and leaving them in the road to die is positively shameful.

In the last ten days, nine New Yorkers were killed by traffic violence. In each case where the driver responsible was sober and stayed at the scene, NYPD has announced, often within hours, that there was “no criminality suspected.” How can the deaths of so many fall completely outside the scope of the criminal laws?  The answer lies in the traditional emphasis in criminal law of punishing the “evil mind.” Meaningful driver accountability requires that we move past "evil minds" and implement strict criminal liability for traffic violence.

The U.S. auto industry presents a striking paradox. On the one hand, manufacturers design and engineer for passenger safety, incorporating features such as airbags designed to protect passengers even in the face of serious human error.  On the other, manufacturers almost entirely disregard the safety of pedestrians, cyclists, and other motorists who foreseeably will be struck by their vehicles.

It is little wonder why the rules of the road for cyclists are so poorly understood. They are hopelessly complex. The first layer of complexity (typical of many areas of law in the U.S.) has three parts: the interplay between state and municipal law governing the same subject matter; the interplay between legislation and administrative regulations; and the common-law system by which judges apply and give new and sometimes unexpected meanings to legislation and regulations.

Warning: this post starts with a lesson in legalese.

Editor's note: Today Streetsblog NYC is pleased to launch "Street Justice," a new column that examines how the law, the courts, and the police affect street safety in New York. Street Justice is written by Steve Vaccaro and Adam White, two attorneys who've been valuable sources for Streetsblog over the years, adding an expert legal perspective to stories about cyclists and pedestrians injured in traffic. Their firm, the Law Office of Vaccaro & White, also pays for an ad on Streetsblog NYC's sidebar, and I'd like to make clear that the new column is not part of the advertising arrangement between Streetsblog and the firm. While it's impossible to completely separate the editorial and business decisions of an operation as small as Streetsblog, the decision to launch the Street Justice column was based on my experience relying on Vaccaro and White as sources, and on the potential for their expertise to illuminate issues of interest to our readers. I'm looking forward to running a new Street Justice every Tuesday.