Originally Posted by randya
Hopefully it will help. There should be an investigation on this; very public, and very punative. I know, I know, the driver was just doing what all other ignorant drivers (which, I guess by some people's count, is most of them) do. We should let him off easy, right? Wrong. We have to start enforcing responsibility while on the public roadway sometime, and gee, if you are the first to be caught? Sucks to be you.
And if it were me who killed the cyclist from my own blatent error, well, I'd expect to be stripped of my driving priviledge - in fact, I'd probably strip it myself. Perhaps then I'd die on my bike from some other idiot and be put out of my misery.
Accidents happen, but accidents have consequences. We as a society are always looking for the easy way out. Always looking for that second chance at life. We romanticize about it; about the guy who made a mistake and is reborn. We make movies about it. But the truth is, that sometimes, there are no second chances. Sometimes, that one mistake is permanant. The guy here will probably walk off with his $242 ticket. He'll pay it, though he will probably go to court to try to get the fine reduced. He'll go about his life. He'll never pay the price that Mike Wilberding's survivors paid.