Don't stop to help lost animals

[dpareja]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/emma-czornobaj-guilty-in-2-highway-deaths-after-stopping-for-ducks-1.2682200

Yeah, the headline says it all, pretty much:

A woman who stopped to help a group of ducklings on the side of the road in 2010 has been found guilty of causing the deaths of a motorcyclist and his passenger daughter who slammed into her parked car on a Montreal-area highway.

Emma Czornobaj was convicted Friday on two counts of criminal negligence causing death and two counts of dangerous driving causing death.

Czornobaj, 25, was charged after Andre Roy, 50, and his daughter, Jessie, 16, were killed.

Roy's motorcycle slammed into Czornobaj's car, which was stopped in the left lane of a provincial highway in Candiac, south of Montreal.

Yeah, so stopping in the left lane is dumb, but, well...

The professed animal lover told the court that she did not see the ducklings' mother anywhere and planned to capture them and take them home.

Czornobaj's lawyer said the defence will be pushing for no jail time because of the lack of criminal intent.

I hope she doesn't go to jail over this, but unfortunately the story doesn't include details on how closely Roy was trailing Czornobaj. And according to another story on the issue...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-motorist-accused-in-two-deaths-said-she-was-helping-ducks-1.2663840

...Roy was distracted by Czornobaj's being at the side of the road when he slammed into her car.

Volikakis testified she saw a woman walking dangerously along the narrow shoulder on the side of the highway. She also saw a car at a standstill in the passing lane.

"I wondered what she was doing there, it was not the place to be," Volikakis said.

She testified that Roy gestured to the accused as if to warn her it was dangerous for her to be there. Seconds later, his bike slammed into the stationary car, sending both of the occupants in the motorcycle flying.

[Ultimate Paragon]

I can only imagine the guilt she must feel.

[WatermelonRat]

I'm a bit confused trying to visualize how this happened. Did this happen at night or around a corner where the motorcyclist couldn't see her stopped car?

[Old Viking]

Heartbreaking for all involved.

[rageaholic]

It was a dumb thing she did, but I don't see how putting her in prison is going to solve anything.  Just take her license away and make her take some driving safety courses.

[Canadian Mojo]

I'm kind of torn with this one because she is guilty, but I think that the criminal negligence really should be tossed. It's only in there because the prosecutor is out for blood and seems to have conveniently forgotten about bow the biker's actions contributed to his own death.

He was speeding somewhere between 23 to 39 km/h over the limit. He obviously wasn't paying attention because the car in front of him managed to avoid the parked car by swerving around it. If he had been following proper positioning in his lane he wouldn't have even needed to swerve to avoid her because he should have been on the right hand side of the left lane (this is to keep cars from mistaking you for a gap in traffic and squeezing you into the shoulder -- you ride on the left side of the right lane and you stay the fuck out of anywhere they can come at you from both sides). She was pulled off onto the shoulder; half a lane worth of space would be plenty of room, even for a big Harley.

If someone had been stopped there for a legitimate reason it would have been written off as 'oops, the biker fucked up.''

[Sylvana]

Last time I checked the rules of the road basically state that you should be far enough away from the person in front of you that if they have to perform an emergency stop, or even if they have a collision and stop, you should be able to stop in time.
From the sounds of this, the person car was parked for a while, so it really is the bikers fault for not paying attention to the road.

IN all fairness, accidents happen. Weird things catch your attention and cause you to not notice the cars right in front of you, but sending someone to prison for because of criminal negligence resulting in death is extreme. As for the dangerous driving, that's just plain retarded, after all the vehicle was stationary.

[Canadian Mojo]

As for the dangerous driving, that's just plain retarded, after all the vehicle was stationary.

I respectfully disagree. She was stopped on a public roadway and creating a hazard to other road users. The law is fairly generic and encompasses stationary vehicles since creating additional laws to cover specific circumstances would result in cops resorting to grocery lists of charges to ensure people don't get off on meaningless technicalities (i.e. the defendant was estimated to be traveling between 0-10km/h, and has no obligation to incriminate themselves, now what? A charge of parked on the road won't work, and neither will traveling too slowly, perhaps creating an obstruction would work).

[Barbarella]

Perhaps she should have put her blinkers on.

I'm torn.

A nice lady wants to help some ducklings.

A guy & his daughter were killed after hitting the lady's car.

Both sides seemed to be doofuses in how they did things.

Lady may be headed for hard time due to something she had happen by mistake.

Part of me says "prison is overkill & the biker rode like a maniac" but part of me says "two people DIED".

The solution should be in the middle. Perhaps a big lawsuit, stiff fines & community service by doing talks at driver's safety functions.

[Witchyjoshy]

Both sides seemed to be doofuses in how they did things.

Lady may be headed for hard time due to something she had happen by mistake.

Part of me says "prison is overkill & the biker rode like a maniac" but part of me says "two people DIED".

The solution should be in the middle. Perhaps a big lawsuit, stiff fines & community service by doing talks at driver's safety functions.

That's the thing about life in general.  Two mistakes were made, and that cost two people their lives.  If either one of them had avoided making their respective mistakes, no one would have died (theoretically.)

Accidental deaths could have been prevented if one person in the chain hadn't made a mistake.  But they happen.  Through no fate, no karma, no destiny.  It just happens.  And it's a tragedy when it does.

Still, though, I agree, hard jail time is not an appropriate punishment for this sort of negligence.  I almost wonder if the judge and jury came down harder on her because she stopped to help animals, but I don't see any evidence supporting that train of thought.

There was no evil in this situation, just misfortune.  To treat it as evil is, ironically, evil.

[Sylvana]

That's the thing about life in general.  Two mistakes were made, and that cost two people their lives.  If either one of them had avoided making their respective mistakes, no one would have died (theoretically.)

The thing is, the lady who went to save the ducklings didn't make any legal mistake unless she didn't put her hazard lights on. Even if she didn't, it still falls on the responsibility of those behind her to have left a safe following distance.

We see it as a fault on her part for stopping for ducklings because we dont value animal lives as much, but if she had performed an emergency stop because someone was lying in the road, her actions would have been 100% in the right, regardless of if someone hit her vehicle. After all, it is the responsibility of other road users to be aware of their surroundings and driving safely so that you can compensate for someones accidents or mistakes.

[Witchyjoshy]

I wasn't talking about a legal mistake, I was talking about an actual, physical mistake.

Though if we are talking legal mistakes, then causing a traffic accident while stopping to avoid killing an animal is, in fact, illegal, where stopping for a human wouldn't be.  Unless said animal is a large animal, like a deer, because they can fall through the windshield and crush you.

[chitoryu12]

The only thing that putting this woman in prison, potentially for life, will teach people is that justice is uncaring and your life is forfeit in Canada if you make a mistake.

[MadCatTLX]

I wasn't talking about a legal mistake, I was talking about an actual, physical mistake.

Though if we are talking legal mistakes, then causing a traffic accident while stopping to avoid killing an animal is, in fact, illegal, where stopping for a human wouldn't be.  Unless said animal is a large animal, like a deer, because they can fall through the windshield and crush you.