12-year-old boy killed on the south side- driver cited for failure to yield

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Permalink Reply by Joe TV on April 19, 2010 at 11:15pm

I wonder if the charges would have been different if the kid had been walking. A travesty, if you ask me.

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Permalink Reply by heather s on April 20, 2010 at 7:13pm

Are charges generally more severe for drivers who strike pedestrians, as opposed to cyclists? I didn't know that.

Joe TV said:

I wonder if the charges would have been different if the kid had been walking. A travesty, if you ask me.

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Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on April 20, 2010 at 8:36pm

No.

heather stratton said:

Are charges generally more severe for drivers who strike pedestrians, as opposed to cyclists? I didn't know that.

Joe TV said:

I wonder if the charges would have been different if the kid had been walking. A travesty, if you ask me.

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Permalink Reply by S on April 20, 2010 at 9:31pm

I think failure to yield is pretty much the default charge. It may get upgraded after investigation. However, I think a lot of the criminal charges like manslaughter require a fairly high burden of proof (e.g. showing negligence or recklessness). IANAL, so I could be wrong though.

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Permalink Reply by Glenn on April 21, 2010 at 1:35pm

The sadder thing here would be that cases like this appear all the time and usually end with just a slap on the wrist.

Automobiles are weapons in the hands of the careless. :-/

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