In April 2010, [Raquel] Nelson, her son A.J., and her two other children, got off a bus in metro Atlanta and—with several other passengers—attempted to cross a 5-lane highway to get to her apartment across the way. The nearest crosswalk was nearly a half a mile in either direction. Most anyone would take the shortcut. Standing at the median in the middle, little A.J. reportedly saw someone else jaywalk and ran out into the street to follow. Raquel ran out after him to stop him. But it was too late. Both Raquel and A.J. were hit by a vehicle, and A.J. died in the hospital a few hours later.
The accident was tragic, and Nelson put her life at risk to try to save him, as any mother would. So how is it possible she may serve more time in jail than the driver who hit and killed her son—a man who admitted to having a few beers and some medication that afternoon?
The driver was released in October after serving a six-month sentence, but Raquel Nelson now faces up to 36 months in prison for vehicular homicide [...].
From here.
I've been in US cities where multi-lane highways bisect residential neighbourhoods, without regard or concern for the lives of people who live in those communities. Urban planning favours the all-mighty imperatives of automobiles, their traffic and their operators.
Of course Raquel Nelson is African American. The racist double standard of the US legal system strikes again.
Grand merci to VK on twitter.
4 comments:
Further to this is the state of our suburbs. Okay, it isnt a big highway, but many, many new development don't have sidewalks. None. You and your stroller, you kid on training wheels, are on the street, because the car is king. It took 2 deaths at a crosswalk near where I live to get traffic lights installed -- because no one wanted the traffic to slow down. yes, its blame the mother, but also, its shame on those people for not having their own car, right?
sm
The judge refused to send her to jail, thank heavens. Also, the judge seemed to think she could have another trial to clear her name, though I don't know how that would work -- personally, I think she should stay as far away from the American legal system as she can.
I actually argued with some asshole on facebook yesterday about this. He insisted the mother was at fault, as much as the driver, because they weren't in the crosswalk. FURY.
Whoever designed that road with crosswalks half a mile apart should be in the dock. And they don't need to block the precious flow of the precious traffic either. No one ever heard of an overpass?
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