I have read with interest several letters over the last few weeks regarding motor vehicle concerns. It started with Margarette Bull’s letter, which I had to keep double-checking to make sure I hadn’t written it myself, and continues the third week of February with letters prompted by the ridiculously light sentences afforded drunk drivers, and indeed any driver who kills a human being through their carelessness.
Bull is correct that laws that narrowly focus on specific behavior, such as the cell phone law she cites and the “secured load” law passed a few years ago, are pointless. They rarely actually change driver behavior, and fail to address the broader issues that lead to irresponsible driver behavior.
And yet, even as I’m encouraged by seeing similar-minded folks writing such letters, my daily experience on the roads, with law enforcement, and with our elected officials leads me to conclude that we have a very long way to go before the roads are as safe as they can and should be.
Far too many drivers willfully ignore traffic laws and safety, endangering those around them. Law enforcement agencies make no real effort to deal with these drivers, and when a motorist does violate the law, blatantly disregarding the safety of another human being and killing them in the process, our prosecutors shirk their duty and don’t even press charges (as in the case of John Przychodzen, a cyclist killed in Juanita last year by a motorist who couldn’t be bothered to stay off the shoulder even when it was in use by Przychodzen).
Legislators aren’t much help either, as they “craft” (and I use the word loosely) new laws that purport to improve safety but have large enough loopholes to drive a Mack truck through, and aren’t enforced strictly anyway.
But it seems that our prosecutors are interested only in taking on cases that are an obvious slam-dunk from the outset anyway. If the driver wasn’t drunk, they just brush the case off, citing the challenge of proving their case (as if they were promised an easy profession), rather than doing their job.
The bottom line here is that it’s absurd for motor vehicle law to treat harm to others differently from the rest of the law. We don’t need “vehicular homicide.”
Our existing manslaughter and murder charges are sufficient, and using them would carry the exact same penalties we’ve agreed are suitable for other scenarios in which one person’s willful actions lead to the death of another, taking into account such questions as intent and forethought.
A person who feels they cannot meet the obligation to stay within their own lane, to not distract themselves with a phone, a newspaper, a hair brush or cosmetics, a razor, or a bowl of cereal (to name just some of the distractions I’ve seen just in the last few months), to stay within the speed limit and to not tailgate so that they have sufficient space and time with which to react, and to follow all the other laws and regulations designed to coordinate the use of road users and to ensure the safety of all road users (including those not using a motor vehicle) – in other words, to make sure they are at all times focused on not endangering others – that person should not be behind the wheel of a motor vehicle. They don’t deserve the privilege.
Our motor vehicle laws ought to reflect that obligation every motorist has, and our law enforcement ought to enforce those laws.
Unfortunately, we don’t even see sufficient enforcement of the laws we have today, legislators are too timid to tackle an overhaul of the laws that would properly encode that obligation, and drivers are woefully uneducated and uncaring regarding what is without doubt the most deadly-serious activity the average person today regularly engages in.
And why is this all the case? Because as a society, we take an incredibly individually selfish viewpoint. We expect gas to be cheap, roads to be maintained without paying for them, and to be able to hurt or kill someone without taking any responsibility for that action.
Until as a society we get serious about taking the operation of motor vehicles seriously, we will continue to get the unsafe roads we deserve. Yes, legislators, law enforcement officers, and prosecuting attorneys all have a role to play and it’s my opinion that they don’t do enough even within the laws as written today.
But remember, they all work for the public. It is up to the public to dictate how they do their jobs, and as long as we allow the status quo, that’s what we’ll get.
Peter Duniho, Kirkland
