According to a news release by the Taylor County attorney, bicyclist
Gerald Williams of Lenox was struck by a vehicle driven by Jessica M.
Brown and killed. The car was damaged bad enough that it couldn’t be
driven. Brown reported that she thought she hit a deer. A day later, the
body of Williams was found in the ditch.
Brown was convicted of
failure to stop at an assured clear distance on Jan. 3. She was ordered
to pay a fine of $500, a statutory surcharge of $175 and court costs in
the amount of $60.
This is a weak punishment.
At about the
time of the crash, the Iowa Department of Transportation announced a
Vision Zero campaign. The goal is to reduce road fatalities to zero.
Everyone who hears about this campaign says, “Is that realistic? Isn’t
there an acceptable level of fatalities?” When asked how many traffic
fatalities would be acceptable if it was a member of your family, the
number is always zero.
We cannot reach zero fatalities
without change. We need safer traffic facilities, we need penalties in
our traffic code that bring change and we need society to stop the
problem.
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