Compassion or Crime?

A 25-year-old mother, driving an estimated 80 mph on the interstate, lost control of her vehicle, which left the pavement and rolled, ejecting two children. A 7-year-old, sleeping on the back seat, and an 8-month old, who was placed in an infant seat but not belted in, died in the accident.

The local press is reporting that the mother may be charged with manslaughter. A letter to the editor asks, “Hasn’t this young mother suffered enough?” The plea is for no charges to be filed as the mother has to live with the grief of losing her two children in the same accident, an accident that she caused.

My first thought was that if those two children had been the letter-writer’s two children who died as a result of the driver’s negligence, the letter asking for no charges would never have been written. If that mother killed another mother’s children, there would be a hue and cry for prosecution to the fullest extent of the law. Why is it not the same when it is her own two children that she kills?

The mother’s grief is off-set by her guilt: the law clearly states that all passengers must be fastened securely with a seatbelt, and the laws regarding children are specific and stringent because a parent is responsible for children’s safety while they are in a vehicle. Any parent who drives without securing children into safety seats or fastening seat belts puts those children at risk for injury or death when/if an accident occurs, and if the accident results in death, the driver is guilty of a crime: manslaughter.

The letter writer presents a case for leniency that includes the fact that the mother was alone and solely responsible for supervising the children, who may have unfastened the seat belt without her knowledge. Perhaps the older child took off the seat belt so she could more comfortably sleep on the seat, but I’m not convinced that an 8-month-old baby can do likewise.

The letter-writer does not mention the fact that the mother was driving 80 mph, a full 10 miles above the posted speed limit.

The mother walked away from the crash with minor injuries, as would her children have had a chance to do had they been properly secured by their mother prior to her speeding to her destination at 80 mph. There is no ‘sorry’ or get out of jail free card to atone for the deaths of two young children, deaths that may have been prevented had the mother simply seen to her legal and moral obligation to transport her children safely.