Clearly she had no criminal intent and although she was foolish, she was acting out of innocence and goodwill. It's not like she was drunk driving or drag racing. I'm sure that the guilt and aguish she feels is more punishement than any court can deliver and will probably last her a lifetime. I don't see any benefit to sending her to prison.
Unfortunately, there will always be people in society who enjoy screaming for a pound a flesh and want to see people flayed and lynched in the public square. They equate justice with suffering and to them it doesn't matter if they had no criminal intent, are mentally handicapped, juveniles or whatever. I think this lynch mob mentality has always been part of society but we now live in an increasingly populist age where people equate mob rule with democracy and politicians and officials feel more pressure to cater these types of sentiments.
I thought this was all settled? What the prosecutor is asking for seems reasonable to me. She had no criminal intent, but neither does somebody who texts while driving or is speeding or keeps their car in poor repair. Her actions were illegal and it was foreseeable that they would cause an accident - death since this is a highway. Reduce the prison sentence a bit,keep the 5 year prohibition, and increase community service a lot. Have her speak to young women how floating around in an estrogen haze of "aw, wookie the wittle duckies" without regard to the larger picture can be just as hazardous as testosterone fuelled "look how fast I can drive."
Seeing all the jokers that have gotten off with little or no jail time for much more grievous offences I can not fathom sending this woman to prison for nine months.
She was already outside of the car helpiing the ducks when the motorcycle hit. Maybe she whouldn't have been stopped on the roadway (what if it had been a child on the road, or a person in distress?0 but as Xort says, its not clear why the motorcyclist crashed into her. Generally speaking, when you rear-end someone, it's your fault for following too closely or not looking where youre going.
Sorry. It's illegal to stop in the fast lane of a highway for no reason, and for good reason. She's an idiot who needs a judicial spanking. But when we've had killers (women of course), who meant to cause harm, get house arrest or probation, makes a good case that the jail portion of the sentence is too severe. Or the sentencing for those killers is too lenient.
Well I don't argue that it's a traffic offence to stop on the highway without good reason, that's a statement of fact (alhtough I'm not sure what the criteria is for "reason" to stop...ducks on the road? a dog? a porcupine? a person? debris that could cause expensive damage to the car? I'll defer to the courts).
But how many people would have simply crushed the ducks without a second thought? Not many I bet. I see people stop on the roadway for turtles, frogs, geese, etc. all the time. I've never seen anyone get out of the car, but they do stop or at least drive around very slowly. Never once have I seen a person just squash the animal and keep going without a second thought. That probably has more to do with not messing up their car as anything else...nobody wants to be scraping duck parts out of their grill and other crevases.
Also, if she had stopped for good reason (say, there was a chunck of concrete in the road or a child had run out into traffic) the motorcyclist still would have crashed into her and died, no? At the very least, the motorcycle bears some responsibility because you never know when the vehicle in front of you may have to stop and need to space yourself accordingly.
A criminal charge and jail time 'sounds reasonable' for someone else's careless driving?
IF you hit a stopped car... it's 100% your fault.
She didn't stop to avoid squashing them. She stopped on the left shoulder, halfway into traffic while she tried to herd them off that shoulder. She should have at least found a way to stop fully on the shoulder. And, if it comes down to humans vs animals, I'll take the humans.
Sure, the motorcyclist bears some responsibility, and he paid a price, Just as, in my opinion at least, the person who gets in a car with a drunk driver and is killed or injured bears some responsibility, but we go after the driver.
She should be penalized. We can argue if the prison time is too severe, or other sentences to light in comparison, but she should be penalized. Remember this is the prosecution arguing. Her lawyer will probably argue for community service and a commuted sentence. Keep the driving prohibition, I say, no matter what.
All well and good, but what she did was illegal and somebody got killed. many people could use the excuse that they didn't think anything would happen; drunk driving, speeding, texting, what have you. What she did was stupid and illegal and somebody got killed. We punish people for that in Canada.
Okay Mr. Law and Order what have you done with andy?