Was that a stop sign??

Last week I had the unique opportunity to meet a man whose legs had been taken by an inattentive driver. It's truly a tragic situation. The driver had looked away from the road to eat some chips (he was running late for work and had to grab a quick breakfast) and then plowed the man right down. One person's momentary mistake cost another person his legs and so much more.

We took extra care not to say anything offensive, but unfortunately there were inadvertant mentions of "standing up" and "walking around" and what-not. What was just a temporary awkward situation for us was actually a horrific permanent modification of every component of this man's life. Think about it for a second. This man cannot walk his daughter down the aisle. He can no longer grab the leash and take the dog out for a simple walk. He can't swim with his grandkids or take them on a hike. Nevermind the basics like showering, using the bathroom, getting into a building, or having sex.

So what should happen to the man who was driving? That's my first question.

The next question pertains to a new law before the Nevada legislature. It's called the misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter law. Basically, it creates a charge for when someone dies because of a driver's negligence. In reality, the law is a feel-good law. It doesn't change the current penalty for being a bad driver. Already in Nevada, all traffic violations are *technically* misdemeanors with a possible maximum $1000 fine and six month jail sentence (unless the specific law says otherwise). The new law has the exact same penalty.

The argument for the law though is that it goes on someone's driving record that someone has been killed. Basically, it provides more accountability for drivers and makes sure that victims are recognized.

There are a few criticisms of the law though. First, it doesn't apply in situations involving serious injuries, like with my friend who lost his legs. So causing a coma, brain damage - that's not recognized. Only death. Second, the law may punish too much behavior. For example, a lady backed over her toddler in her driveway the other day and killed her. Mom didn't know the baby had run out and she didn't look back closely enough to see if there were any kids behind her car. But this lady would *technically* have violated the law (unsafe backing + death). Third - and honestly, the one I'm most worried about - is that existing felonies - like drag racing resulting w/ death, reckless driving w/ death, etc. are now more likely to be reduced to the lesser charge of misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter.

This one's a toughie for me. While I think that there does need to be accountability for ruining another person's life while driving, I'm afraid that every person who experiences a bad twist of fate will end up in jail. Even general law-abiding me. I've run a stop sign before. I didn't mean to. I didn't see it. And I hit someone. Thank God he didn't die. But say he wasn't wearing his seatbelt?

I think people don't take driving seriously enough. We drive with flip-flops. We eat. We drink. We talk on the cell. We put on make-up. We read the paper. We look at directions. We pay attention to our friends. If this law makes people think twice about doing these kinds of things, then I would probably support it. What do you think?