Colorado, It’s Time We Get Serious About Traffic Violence
Colorado, It’s Time We Get Serious About Traffic Violence
In Colorado, every state law treats the death of a person due to another’s actions as a felony—except one: hitting a person with a vehicle. This inconsistency is a red flag and requires a closer look. To be clear, district attorneys have the option to charge drivers with a felony, but unless the circumstances are egregious, such as the driver was drunk or had intent to harm, most opt for a lesser charge: Careless Driving Resulting in Death, a class one misdemeanor.
In far too many cases, judges sentence people guilty of this crime to probation and a $1,000 fine—the former being below the minimum sentencing guideline of ten days in jail, and the latter being the maximum fine allowed. When a driver kills someone with their vehicle and is charged with a misdemeanor traffic violation, it is hard to accept that this is what accountability looks like. I know most families who have lost loved ones will unequivocally say that drivers receive a slap on the wrist.
I have been practicing law for over thirty-five years, the majority of which has included representing bicyclists who have been hit by drivers who disregarded the safety of others. The Colorado legislature is considering a bill that will increase penalties for drivers who hit and kill vulnerable road users, such as bicyclists and pedestrians, from a class one misdemeanor to a class six felony. This is not an easy topic, and I struggle with aspects of the proposed legislation. But let me explain why this law is necessary.
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The bill is SB25-281 for anyone interested in following it through the process. Here's a good article from CPR on it too.
''Some transportation safety advocates endorse the Vision Zero method of framing traffic deaths and injuries as the result of an unsafe transportation system, and not the fault of...
individual people. They argue that changing the physical characteristics of roads to promote bicycling, walking and transit and to force drivers to drive safer is a more effective way to reduce traffic deaths and injuries.
Gorman agreed with that.
“Unless we get away from so many people driving cars, there's no way to solve this problem,” he said. “All you can do is nibble at the edges.”
But reshaping an entire transportation system is a long, expensive and controversial process. So supporters of the bill hope that the threat of higher punishment would help make Colorado’s roads safer in the meantime.
I'm against incarceration in general, this seems like a case where increased consequences of some sort (maybe a long-term community service requirement?) would be beneficial though.