Woman Strikes and Kills Police Officer, Avoids Jail Time
A 61-year-old woman was given a plea deal in a court case that followed a car-bicycle accident involving a police officer. The 61-year-old woman told police after the incident that she was distracted by her children in the back seat of her vehicle and although she realized she struck a bicyclist, she did not want to stop. The police officer on the bicycle was training with other officers at the time of the accident. The woman pleaded guilty to failure to stop after an accident causing death and she would have served four years of home detention but the sentence will be reduced to two years if the woman exhibits good behavior.
The woman’s travels will be restricted to counseling, work and church. The victim’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the woman after the accident had occurred and the manufacturer of the bicycle helmet the police officer was wearing was also named in the lawsuit.
If the judge in this case had not accepted the plea deal offered by the woman’s attorneys, she could have been given jail time rather than in-home detention. Unfortunately, this is the result of many cases involving a pedestrian being struck by an oncoming vehicle. In a majority of those cases, the driver in the vehicle chooses not to stop and offer any sort of assistance for the victim in the accident. As a result, the victims are left lying on the roadway until somebody happens upon them and helps them. Although the victim in this accident received help almost immediately from police officers at the scene, it was not enough to save his life.
Although the victim’s family in this case did get to see justice served on behalf of their loved one, the financial compensation they get and the justice they witness will not bring their loved one back. The police officer that was killed left behind a wife and two children and now they must live the rest of their lives without their husband and father. This is the unfortunate result of many car-pedestrian or car-bicycle accidents that occur throughout the United States. Unfortunately no amount of closure or money can help them cope with the loss that they suffer.
