Pedestrian and her son mowed down by drunk, son is killed but SHE is charged with vehicular homicide

[CatWoman]

A Marietta mother may serve more time than the driver who hit and killed her 4-year-old son.

Raquel Nelson, 30, could be sentenced to up to 36 months at a hearing July 26, said David Savoy, her attorney. She was convicted Tuesday of homicide by vehicle in the second degree, crossing roadway elsewhere than at crosswalk and reckless conduct, said Savoy.

Jerry L. Guy, the driver who admitted hitting the child when pleading guilty to hit-and-run, served a 6-month sentence. He was released Oct. 29, 2010, and will serve the remainder of a 5-year sentence on probation, according to Cobb court records.

Nelson was attempting to cross at the intersection of Austell Road and Austell Circle with her three children when her son was struck by a car, said Savoy. The child later died from his injuries. Nelson and her younger daughter suffered minor injuries and her older daughter was not injured.

Guy confessed to having consumed "a little" alcohol earlier in the day, being prescribed pain medication and being partially blind in his left eye, said David Simpson, his attorney.


http://www.ajc.com/news/cobb/pedestrian-convicted-of-vehicular-1014879.html

[librechik]

1. I don't get it. Why was the mother charged? She wasn't even in a car!

[geardaddy]

2. Apparently she was jay walking.

I thought pedestrians had the right of way no matter where they cross.

[jtuck004]

3. Nope. Just at intersections and in marked areas., at least in the few

state licensing manuals I have read.

A driver could be at fault through DUI, of course, oralso negligence, for not acting like a reasonable person would (interpreted by the court or jury). But generally pedestrians only have right-of-way in marked areas, or at intersections, and the driver mostly gets a pass if you walk out in front of them outside of those areas.

[dana_b]

5. and the article says that she was at an intersection

this makes no sense or someone (journalist) has the facts wrong

[Lance_Boyle]

9. picture here

Original GD thread here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1522981

[dana_b]

18. thanks

that is not an intersection however putting her in jail is not going to help one bit.

[Cid_B]

23. A person doesn't have the right......

... to jump in front of a moving vehicle. There is a reasonableness standard...

[Lance_Boyle]

4. This was posted here earlier in the week.

The driver and the jaywalker were both at fault. There were sidewalks on the street on which she exited the bus and a crosswalk within a quarter mile or so for safe crossing. Her decision to take the shortcut cost her son his life, regardless of the culpability of the driver who hit him (who has been charged as well).

[librechik]

6. very sad story.

[CreekDog]

7. a quarter mile is reasonable distance out of the way?

what the heck?

[Lance_Boyle]

8. More reasonable than jaywalking into death, yeah.

She bears much of the blame for the incident.

[theHandpuppet]

10. A quarter mile IS a long distance...

... when you are walking with three small children.

[Lance_Boyle]

14. And jaywalking, as proven in this instance, can be deadly

when you drag small children along with you. :shrug:

Which is preferable, walking a quarter mile, or seeing your kid squashed because you made him jaywalk?

[indurancevile]

19. crossing 4 lanes of traffic with 3 children is insane.

[surrealAmerican]

20. It is.

Part of the problem here is a very poorly situated bus stop, and a irresponsible "urban planning".

I hope this woman has a good lawyer.

[CreekDog]

12. in the neighborhood i work in jaywalking is safer than crossing with the light

because when you jaywalk, the traffic that turns and overtakes you has a red light, if you cross with the light, the traffic that overtakes you (turning left onto a one way street) doesn't have a red --and frequently doesn't stop.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

24. That's a huge bitch i have at certain streets I cross

Sometimes, I think the planners have their head up their ass.

[Xithras]

11. It's odd that they'd put a bus stop there.

In most of the cities I've visited, but stops are only located at or near intersections with crosswalks. I just looked up this spot on Google Maps (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Austell+Rd+SE,++and+Austell+Circle+Marietta,+Cobb,+Georgia&hl=en&sll=33.909186,-84.559118&sspn=0.001781,0.003473&t=h&z=17), and it's a pretty long walk to the crosswalk from the spot where they were dropped.

IMHO, it's also a failure by the city to place its stops properly.

People like to complain about overegulation in California, but this is a good example of WHY regulation can be a good thing. It appears that she lives in a nearly new apartment complex. To build that in California today, the builders would have to do an EIR that would identify the projects impact on traffic patterns, including pedestrian traffic. Because it's a housing complex on a busy road, and because public transportation drops them off on the other side of the road, the EIR would have quickly identified the need for a crosswalk in front of the apartments, or to relocate bus stops to accomodate the new traffic, and required the builder to pay the cost of the changes.

[sinkingfeeling]

15. Why isn't there a cross walk where the bus stop is? From the picture, they built a

shelter for waiting for the bus heading one way, but no crosswalk where the bus stops the other way.

[seabeyond]

13. the story does not say anything about how she went about "trying" to get across

intersection. was the light green for motorists? was the man going the speed limit, had the right away, and didnt have time to stop?

dont know

story does not say

why would they leave it out, for outrage

[CatWoman]

16. found this at Huffington Post:

Nelson had taken her children with her to shop for groceries and supplies for her upcoming birthday party. The working mother and college student regularly took public transportation, but she and her kids missed their intended bus that night, putting them an hour behind schedule. The bus they caught pulled up to their stop after nightfall, and Nelson stepped off, clutching her kids' hands through the shopping bags wrapped around her wrists. Nelson's apartment complex sits across the street from the bus stop, but the nearest crosswalk is three-tenths of a mile away. So Nelson did what everyone who uses that bus stop does, and what the other disembarking passengers all did that night: She crossed one side of the divided highway to the median, where she waited for a break in the traffic.

Several people then crossed the street before Nelson thought it was safe. She waited with her kids. But when others started to move towards the road, Nelson's son must taken it as a cue it was time to go. She felt his grip on her hand loosen and he darted out into the road. She followed. Guy's car struck Nelson, her son and her daughter, and the boy died.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/radley-balko/raquel-nelson-jail-for-jaywalking_b_905925.html

[seabeyond]

17. i am sad for all of them. i dont see it as the mans fault. i wondered if that is what

the boy might have done. i saw the picture of the street above and thought visual should be clear for motorists. but if the boy ran out, then that is the reason.

sometimes

it is just an accident.

on edit... thanks for further info

[frylock]

21. the dude was drinking and on pain meds..

surely he shares some responsibilty. the article i read stated that he had up to THREE hit and run incidents that day just prior to killing the kid.

[seabeyond]

22. yes i read it. but that is what bothers me about this story

it left out so much info and only put stuff in that would lead for all to be outraged with the driver.

surely they have the tox number that they leave out. he has already been in and out of jail. must not been much of anything since all they did was imply that it was his drinking. though he said he had soemthing to drink earlier in the day.

what time. how much. did it really effect him

then they throw out the previous hit and runs. again, nothing to do with this.

but all about creating an outrage.

the article is poor and manipulative, i believe. which makes me believe it less.

[Blasphemer]

26. I agree that the story linked in the OP is, at best, incomplete

The Huffington Post piece clarifies the situation and the writer's outrage is more appropriately directed.

[Blasphemer]

25. I have crossed in a similar manner in a similar situation

Where my mother lives, there is a bus stop at a significant distance from the crosswalk and before bus service was extended and connection times adjusted, this bus stop was used in lieu of the one that does not require crossing a street at all. It was used in order to avoid missing the connecting bus since bus service is once per hour. On any given night, there were at least a dozen people crossing to a median and waiting for breaks in traffic in order to catch the bus. At times, I would find myself following someone across and imagining what would happen if I tripped and the break in traffic wasn't enough to avoid a potentially fatal accident. There is a lot of blame to go around for situations such as this one but I have a hard time imagining why anyone would consider prosecuting the parent to be a reasonable response. If jaywalking is not routinely punished then to do so in this case seems to be extraordinarily callous. I would be curious to know the demographic make-up up the jaywalkers at this bus stop. Where my mother lives, 95% of bus riders are minorities. If that is also the case in this area of Marietta, I have to agree with Mr. Balko that there are racial politics at play here. This was a horrible tragedy, and to punish this mother rather than address the flawed city planning that contributed to the death of her child is unconscionable.