What should she be charged with?

[Benton]

(07-08-2015, 12:27 PM)Awful Llama Wrote: Yeah, I'm not understanding the distinction.  If he had been driving a Smart Car instead of a motorcycle, would we then be saying "Well, if he were only driving an Escalade he'd still be alive, so he bears some responsibility here."

If you punch a guy with a neurological condition, and it's a punch that ordinarily wouldn't cause anyone's death, but he does die as a result, you're still responsible for his death.  You take a person as you find them.

If you punch a guy with a neurological condition you took a conscious action that resulted in a death (you punched him, he died). You didn't have to be aware of his condition to affect the outcome.

This isn't that. She didn't consciously or otherwise run him over. Unless there's more details than what's in the story, she wasn't driving distracted, at excessive speeds, under the influence or anything other than maybe having bad depth perception or not reacting quick enough to stop in time. In other words, it was an accident.

So, if you're walking down the street, accidentally trip and bump into a guy with a neurological condition and he dies, should you be charged? You did not take a conscious action, you didn't have outside conditions of your own choosing that led to it, it was just an accident.