Kansas Senate sends a message
2018-02-08 16:08:14.700126+00 by Dan Lyke 0 comments
Bicycle race fatality inspires Senate bill creating violation for negligent driving.
The last race of Topeka cyclist Glenda Taylor’s career was the 2015 Kansas State Bicycle Time Trial Championships.
Taylor, head of the art department at Washburn University, was killed when she was struck by a pickup truck in Crawford County. The impact threw her 169 feet into a ditch. Her pelvis was crushed and bones in her arms and legs were shattered. Her aortic artery was torn from her heart.
So the Kansas Senate Transportation Committee is being urged to adopt legislation that would impose a fine "... if the driver causing a crash outside city limits was engaged in an activity that distracted him or her from the road."
They're sending a message. The proposed fine is $45.
The perpetrator in this particular killing was convicted of manslaughter, sentenced to 34 months in prison, the judge suspended the prison time for 36 months of probation and 60 days in jail.
As always, I have mixed feelings about the punishment for killing with a motor vehicle: I suspect that driver will forever more be cautious and will probably be wracked with guilt for the rest of their life, but I wish we had some actually effective deterrents for behaving recklessly with a motor vehicle.