Woman Who Texted While Driving, Gets No Jail Time

Silver Member Joined: Nov 07 2010 Age: 33 Posts: 782

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....89545.html

Delivery

A Brooklyn woman who was texting while driving, fatally hitting a Chinese deliveryman in 2010, has escaped jail time by agreeing to a plea deal on Monday.

Instead, 21-year old Nechama Rothberger has received five years' probation and been ordered to complete 100 hours of community service for fatally hitting 53-year old Tian Sheng Lin.

Lin was a father of three and, as The Daily News reports, emigrated from his native China to avoid punishment for violating the country's strict one-child law. Sources say Lin's family has a possible lawsuit that could potentially bring in a seven-figure payment.

In September 2010, a then 19-year old Rothberger was texting while driving a 2005 Toyota Camry in Midwood when she hit Lin on his scooter.

_________________
I don't share my thoughts because I think it will change the minds of people who think differently. I share my thoughts to show the people who already think like me that they're not alone.

Diamond Member Joined: Apr 18 2010 Posts: 3035

The family is going to sue her for everything she has, as well they should. BTW, I predict that within the next decade, states will start passing legislation treating driving while texting as driving while intoxicated, and charging texters with vehicular manslughter. They drunk driving and texting while driving are functionally equivalent, this has been scientifically proven many times.

I do feel for the girl. She has to live the rest of her life knowing she killed a man, deprived three kids of a father, and for what? A text message that just couldn't wait 5 minutes.

Diamond Member Joined: Jan 24 2010 Posts: 3400

Anyone remember that story about a police officer who was on his cell phone, driving well over 100 MPH, went over the median, and crashed head on with another vehicle that killed 2 young girls. (I think they were sisters.) He didn't spend a day in prison. He didn't even show remorse whatsoever. That is sick, sick, sick!

Platinum Member Joined: Nov 04 2008 Posts: 7933

She killed a man! She left a widow and three orphans! She ought to go to jail.
_________________
We must love one another or die.

Diamond Member Joined: Jan 24 2010 Posts: 3400

Diamond Member Joined: Apr 29 2006 Posts: 4774

I would hate for a frum young girl to do jail time but she did kill a man, there should be some serious punishment.
I think serious punishment would send a huge message to the many people who text and drive.
_________________
"But it's no use going back to yesterday, I was a different person then"- Alice in Wonderland

Diamond Member Joined: Mar 17 2008 Posts: 3559

Maybe it's just me, but I'm trying to imagine this as a non-Jew killing a frum Jew to see whether I'm being prejudiced...

Jail time? I don't know.

If someone is driving and talking to her kids in the back seat and crashes into another car, should she be punished like a criminal if someone in the other car dies? Many car crashes are due to negligence, and to the best of my knowledge, there's no jail time for them.

If there's jail time for negligence that causes a person to die, then it should apply here. To the best of my knowledge, there isn't.

I'm not saying she shouldn't be punished, I'm not saying it's not horrible. Car crashes in general are horrible. People getting killed in any type of accident is horrible. But I think it's easy to come down hard on someone who made a mistake -- especially a fatal one -- when you're not actually that person and don't know the person at all.

P.S. I don't text at all. While driving or otherwise.

Diamond Member Joined: Apr 18 2010 Posts: 3035

In criminal law, criminal negligence is one of the three general classes of mens rea (Latin for "guilty mind") element required to constitute a conventional as opposed to strict liability offense. It is defined as an act that is:
careless, inattentive, neglectful, willfully blind, or in the case of gross negligence what would have been reckless in any other defendant.

Vehicular homicide (also known as vehicular manslaughter) in most states in the United States, is a crime. In general, it involves death that results from the negligent operation of a vehicle, or more so a result from driving while committing an unlawful act that does not amount to a felony. In the Model Penal Code there is no separate category of vehicular homicide, and vehicular homicides that involve negligence. Both are included in the overall category of negligent homicide.[1][2] It can be compared to the offense of dangerous driving causing death in other countries

Platinum Member Joined: Nov 01 2009 Posts: 8228

Recent research has shown that driving while texting is equivalent to driving while drunk.
_________________
Never mistake activity for achievement.

We certainly need to show that this is intolerable. That said, do we need to ruin another life over this? If that girl spends time in jail, that is THE END of HER LIFE! Don't know how many of you have even seen the inside of a jail . . . never mind what goes on there.
Perhaps, being someone who doesn't text ever I can't really see the nisayon to text while driving, therefore I advocate way stricter laws on this machla in the first place. (suspension of her license, a hefty fine, community service, perhaps even some kind of ongoing reparations to the family . . .)
In most states you cannot be stopped for texting - although you can be prosecuted for it if you are stopped for something else. In my limited experience, if you're willing to bend the rules, you're willing to bend the rules, and may not be driving by the book at all. Time to put this issue on the front burner, folks!